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DAWN ON THE 
HILLS OF T ' ANO 



OR 



MISSIONS IN CHINA 



BY y 

HAELAN P. BEACH 

FORMERLY MISSIONARY IN CHINA ; MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN 

ORIENTAL society; EDUCATIONAL SECRETARY OF 

THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 

FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 



NEW YORK 

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 

FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 

1898 






r 



The Library 
OF Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1898, by 

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 
FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 




TH'OCOPIJS RECEIVED. 

\^ \ TROW DIRECTORY \ 

TENTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 



fst COPY, 
1398, 



EXPLANATOEY 

The somewhat peculiar form of this little volume 
is due to the fact that it is one of a series of text-books 
prepared for Mission Study Classes^ found mainly in 
higher educational institutions, though many haye 
been carried on by young people^s societies and 
women^s missionary organizations. A book which 
gives the main points in as brief a form as possible, 
and which makes ample provision for further study by 
class members, is demanded for such a use ; and the 
satisfaction of such demands has been aimed at in the 
preparation of this volume. That this form of text- 
book is appreciated is evidenced by the fact that more 
than ten thousand copies were sold to study classes 
during last year. 

Experiments extending over three years have led to 
the peculiarities of typography, found in these pages. 
The heavy-faced Clarendon type indicates the main 
divisions of the chapter ; numerals indicate subordi- 
nate divisions ; and paragraphs, or Italics, mark sub- 
topics under the latter. Those preparing the lesson 
usually group their facts about these words in special 
type, and class leaders employ them as the basis of 
questions. At the request of many, an analytical in- 
dex has been prepared — see pages 167 to 173, and can 
be used after the lesson has been carefully read over to 



IV EX PL A NA TOR Y 



ascertain how much has been remembered. It also 
brings the thoughts of the chapter before one with 
great clearness and at a glance. 

As the text-book is but an outline, it is expected 
that classes will supplement its meagre statements by 
outside readings. A collection of such readings will 
be found on pages ix. to xvii. While only a small por- 
tion of the very full bibliography of this field has been 
entered in the list, a far larger number of references 
has been printed than can be used, for the reason that 
if only a few readings were suggested, libraries to 
which access was possible might contain none of them. 
With a comparatively large number listed, the chance 
of finding at least some readings is increased. It is 
not usually advisable to assign more than three or four 
additional readings to be reported upon at any one 
class session. 

It will be noted that no missionary periodicals are 
found in this list except The Chinese Recorder and The 
Missionary Review of the World. The reason for 
this is that the two periodicals excepted are inter- 
denominational, and the latter is easily accessible. 
Moreover, as over fifty boards labor in the Empire, it 
would be obviously impossible to refer to their official 
organs. In the book itself, practically nothing has 
been said concerning the work of any one society. 
An attempt to do this would have resulted in a volume 
too large for class use, as well as being too expensive. 
The hope of the author is that missionary societies 
using it for class work will supplement it by pamphlets 
issued by their board. In two cases provision has al- 
ready been made for such classes. The Board of the 
Methodist Church in the South has a special edition 



EXPLANATORY 



for its own use^ containing an additional chapter^ 
written by Bishop Galloway^ upon the work of their 
Church in China. Similarly, Mrs. Professor Barbour 
and Miss Huntington, of the Episcopal Church, have 
prepared a special pamphlet to accompany the text- 
book, in which full details concerning the Missions 
of the American Episcopal Church in China are ad- 
mirably summarized. Doubtless other boards can 
make a like arrangement. Suggestions for the study 
of the work for any given board may be found in Ap- 
pendix C. 

The special map prepared for the book, while not 
perfect, is more nearly so than any missionary map 
of the Empire hitherto published. The index ac- 
companying it makes it easy to find any place occu- 
pied at the present time by missionaries. 

Many will criticise the orthography of proper names, 
both on the map and in the body of the book. In 
defense the author would say that scarcely any map 
of China is consistent in its Komanization of geo- 
graphical names, and the same is to some extent true 
of personal names in works on this country. The at- 
tempt has here been made — though some exceptions 
will be found — to follow a uniform system of Eoman- 
ization. But if this is desirable, what system is to be 
used ? The one followed is that of Sir Thomas Wade, 
which is increasingly employed in the latest diction- 
aries, lessons for beginners, etc. To say that it is a 
system peculiarly adapted to the Pekingese, and hence 
should be discarded, is like objecting to Parisian be- 
cause it does not correctly represent the pronunciation 
of southwestern France. While Sir Thomas Wade's 
system does not properly reproduce the sounds of 



EXPLANATORY 



southern China, no system is universal, and Waders 
is the standard for Northern Mandarin, which is un- 
derstood by more persons, perhaps, than any other 
Chinese dialect. An approximate key to this system 
is found on page xviii. 



September 1, 1898. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Bibliography, ix 

Key to Pronunciation of Chinese Words, . . xviii 

I. The World of the Chinese, .... 1 

II. China's Inheritance from the Past, . . .15 

III, " The Eeal Chinaman," 32 

IV. Keligions of the Chinese, 52 

V. Preparation and Beginnings, . . . .75 

VI. The Protestant Occupation of China, . . 95 
VII. The Missionaries at Work, . . . .116 

VIII. The Dawn, 134 

Appendix A. Provincial Divisions, .... 153 

Appendix B. Prominent Events of the Historic Dy- 
nasties, . • . . . . . . . 159 

Appendix C. Scheme for Studying Denominational 

Missionary Work in China, 162 

Analytical Index, 167 

Map Index, . , , • 175 



BIBLIOGEAPHY. 

ADDITIO]^AL READIiq-GS FOR CHAPTER I. 

Barnes, I. H. : Behind the Great Wall (1896), ch. I. 

Chinese Recorder for 1896, pp. 170-174. 

CuNNYNGHAM, W. G. E. : YouDg People's History of the Chi- 
nese (1896), ch. II. 

CuRzoN, G. N. ; Problems of the Far East (1896), ch. VIII. 

Davis, J. P. : The Chinese (1851), vol. I., ch. V. 

Encyclopaedia of Missions (1891). Article, China. 

General Encyclopaedias. Article, China. 

Gray, J. H. : China (1878), vol. I., ch. I. ; vol. II., ch. XXXII. 

Hart, V. C. : Western China (1888), chs. VI.-XIII. 

Henry, B. C. : Ling-nam (1886). Especially ch. XXVII. 

Keane, a. H. : Asia (1896), vol. I., pp. 245-361. 

Kleine Missions-Bibliothek (1880), vol. III., pt. III., pp. 1-13. 

Morris, T. M. : A Winter in North China (1892), ch. VII. 

Nevius, J. L. : China and the Chinese (1882), ch. I. 

Nouveau Dictionnaire de Geographic Universelle (1897). Ar- 
ticle, Chine. 

EocKHiLL, W. W. : The Land of the Lamas (1891), chs. I, II., 
VII. 

Thomson, J. : Through China with a Camera (1898). 

WiLLiAivisoN, A. : Journeys in North China (1870), vol. II., 
ch. II. 

Williams, S. W. : Middle Kingdom (1882), vol. I., chs. I.-IIL 

Wilson, J. H. : China (1894), chs. III.-V. 



ADDITIONAL READINGS FOR CHAPTER II. 

BouGHTON, W. : History of Ancient Peoples (1897), pt. II., 

ch. II. 
BouLGER, D. C. : A Short History of China (1893). 
Chinese Recorder for 1896, pp. 233-242, 284:-292, 336-342, 589- 

592. 
Davis, J. P. : Sketches of China (1845), ch. IX. 
Davis, J. P. : The Chinese (1851), vol. I., ch. VI. 
De Lacouperie, T. : Western Origin of the Early Chinese 

Civilization (1894), chs. II., III. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Douglas, E. K, : China (1882), ch. I. 
Encjclopaeaia of Missions (1891), vol. I., pp. 251-252. 
Faber, E. : China in the Light of History (1897). 
Fergusson, T. : Chinese Kesearches (1880), pt. I., ch. I. 
General Encyclopaedias. Article, China. 

Kleine Missions-Bibliothek (1880), vol. III., pt. III., pp. 15-27. 
Legge, J. : The Chinese Classics (1865), vol. III., pt. I., ch. V. 
Macgowan, J. : History of China (1897). 
Maters, W. E. : Chinese Reader's Manual (1874). 
Medhurst, W. H. : China; Its State and Prospects (1838), 

ch. I. 
Morrison, R. : View of China for Philological Purposes (1817), 

pp. 4r-60. 

Moule, a. E. : New China and Old (1892), ch. I. 

Williams, S. W. : Middle Kingdom (1882), vol. II., ch. XVII. 

Williams, S. W. and F. W. : History of China (1897). 



ADDITIONAL READINGS FOR CHAPTER III. 

Ball, J. D. : Things Chinese (1893), pp. 91-101. 

CocKBURN, G. : John Chinaman (1896). 

Davis, J. A. ; Choh Lin (1884), chs. I.-XI. 

Davis, J. F. : Sketches of China (1845), ch. XV. 

DooLiTTLE, J. : Social Life of the Chinese (1865). 

Douglas, R. K. : China (1882). 

Douglas, R. K. : Society in China (1894). 

E. M. : The Chinese ; Their Mental and Moral Characteristics 
(1877). 

Encyclopaedia of Missions (1891). Article, China. 

FiELDE, A. M. : A Corner of Cathay (1894). 

FiELDE, A. M. : Pagoda Shadows (1884). 

General Encyclopaedias. Article, China. 

Gray, J. H. : China (1878). 

Henry, B. C. : The Cross and the Dragon (1885), ch. III. 

HoLCOMBE, C. : The Real Chinaman (1895). 

HosiE, A. : Three Years in Western China (1889), ch. XIII. 

Houghton, R. C. : Women of the Orient (1877), chs. V., VIII. 

Keane, a. H. : Asia (1896), vol. I., pp. 361-383, 432-439. 

Macgowan, J. : Pictures of Southern China (1897), pp. 316- 
320. 

March, D. : Morning Light in Many Lands (1891), chs. X., XI. 

Medhurst, W. H. : The Foreigner in Far Cathay (1873), es- 
pecially chs. XII., XYIII. 

Missionary Review of the World (1895), pp. 84-89. 

Mission Stories of Many Lands (1885), pp. 173-219. 

Nevius, J. L. : China and the Chinese (1882), chs. 11. , XVII., 
XIX. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Smith, A. H. : Chinese Characteristics (1894). 

Smith, A. H. : Proverbs and Common Sayings of the Chinese 

(1888). 
Williams, S. W. : Middle Kingdom (1882), vol. I., chs. V., 

VII., IX., XIII., XIV. 
Wylie, a. : Notes on Chinese Literature (1867), pp. i-xiii. 



ADDITIO]N"AL READHsTGS FOR CHAPTER lY. 

Barrows, J. H., Editor: World's Parliament of Religions 
(1893), vol. I., pp. 374-439; vol. II., pp. 1355-1358. 

Beal, S. : Buddhism in China (1884). 

Bettant, G. T. : The World's Religions (1891), pp. 102-166. 

China Mission Hand-Book (1896), pt. I., pp. 1-31. 

Davids, T. W. R. : Buddhism (1890), chs. VIII., IX. 

Doolittle, J. : Social Life of the Chinese (1865), vol. I., chs. 
VIII.,XI.,XIV. 

Douglas, R. K. : Confucianism and Taouism (1889). 

Du BosE, H. C. : The Dragon, Image, and Demon (1886). 

Edkins, J. : Early Spread of Religious Ideas (1893), chs. V.^ 
VII. 

Ellinwood, E. F. : Oriental Religions and Christianity (1892), 
lect. VII. 

Encyclopaedia of Missions (1891). Articles, Confucianism, Tao- 
ism. 

Eaber, E. : The Mind of Mencius (1897). 

General Encyclopaedias. Articles, Confucius, Confucianism, 
Taoism. 

Grant, G. M. : Religions of the World in Relation to Christi- 
anity (1894), ch. III. 

Gray, J. H. : China (1878), vol. I., chs. IV., V. 

Henry, B. C. : The Cross and the Dragon (1885), chs. IV.-VII. 

Hue, E. R. : A Journey through the Chinese Empire (n. d.), 
vol. II., ch. VI. 

Jevons, F. B. : Introduction to the History of Religion (1896), 
see China in Index. 

Legge, J. : Chinese Classics, Translated into English (1887), 
vols. L, II. 

Legge, J. : Chinese Classics [with Chinese text] (1893), vol. I., 
the Prolegomena. 

Legge, J. : Chinese Classics [with Chinese text] (1895) vol. 
II. , the Prolegomena. 

Legge, J. : Religions of China (1881). 

Legge, J. : Sacred Books of the East, the Texts of Taoism 
(1891), especially vol. I., pp. 1-44. 

Matheson, G. : Distinctive Messages of the Old Religions 
(1894), ch. Ill, 



Xll BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Menzies, a. : History of Eeligion (1895), ch. VIII. 

Missionary Review of the Worlds 1894, pp. 80-89 ; 1896, pp. 
96-100. 

MouLE, A. E. : Four Hundred Millions (1871), ch. I. 

MouLE, A. E. : New China and Old (1892), chs. VI., VIII. 

Nevius, H. S. C. : Our Life in China (1868), ch. III. 

Nevius, J. L. : China and the Chinese (1882), chs. III., VL- 
XII. 

Present Day Tracts—Non-Christian Religions (1887), Christi- 
anity and Confucianism. 

Progress for October, 1897, pp. 103-107, 112-150. 

Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1877, pp. 62- 
75 ; pp. 367-387. 

Scott, A. : Buddhism and Christianity (1890), lect. VI. 

Student Missionary Appeal (1898), pp. 93-100; 336-338. 

Williams, S. W. : Middle Kingdom (1882), vol. II., pp. 188- 
266. 



ADDITIOI^rAL READINGS FOR CHAPTER V. 

Arnold, T. W. : The Preaching of Islam (1896), ch. X. 
Ball, J. D. : Things Chinese (1893), pp. 419-430; 294-299. 
China Mission Hand-Book (1896), pt. I., pp. 31-45. 
Chinese Recorder for 1891, pp. 263, 264; 354-358; 377, 378; 

401-405; 545-553; for 1892, pp. 57-60; for 1895, pp. 251- 

260. 
Davis, J. F. : The Chinese (1851), vol. I., ch. I. 
DooLiTTLE, J. : Social Life of the Chinese (1865), vol. II., pp. 

394-403. 
Encyclopaedia of Missions (1891), vol. I., pp. 264, 265. 
Foster, A. : Christian Progress in China (1889), pp. 247-255. 
Haines, C. R. : Islam, as a Missionary Religion (1889), ch. VI. 
Hue, E. R. : Christianity in China (1857-58). 
Marshall, T. W. M. : Christian Missions (1863), sections on 

China. 
Martin, W. A. P. : A Cycle of Cathay (1896), pt. II., ch. IV. 
Martin, W. A. P. : The Chinese (1881), pp. 287-306. 
Neander, a. : General History of the Christian Religion and 

Church (1871), vol. IV., pp. 45-59. 
Nevius, J. L. : China and the Chinese (1882), ch. XXVI. 
Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai (1890), pp. 

196-202. 
Williams- S. W. : Middle Kingdom (1882), vol. II., pp. 266- 

318. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



ADDITIONAL EEADIl^GS FOR CHAPTER VI. 

Berry, D. M. : The Sister Martyrs of Ku Cheng (n. d.), ch. 

XXII. 
Bliss, E. M. : Concise History of Missions (1897), pt. 11. , ch. 

VI. 

Butler, W. F. : Charles George Gordon (1889), ch. III. 
Centenary Conference on Foreign Missions, London, 1888, vol. 

L, pp. 220-238. 
China Mission Hand-Book (1896), pt. II. 
Christlieb, T. : Protestant Foreign Missions (1880), pp. 189- 

209. 
Cobb, H. N. : Far Hence (1893), chs. XX. -XXVII. 
Conference on Foreign Missions, Mildmay (1878), pp. 168-179. 
Creegan, C. C. : Great Missionaries of the Church (1895), chs. 

VI., VII. 
Cunningham, A. : History of the Szechnen Kiots (1895). 
Encyclopaedia of Missions (1891), vol. I., pp. 265-271. 
Fagg, J, G. : Forty Years in South China (1894), chs. V., XI. 
Graham, J. A. : Missionary Expansion of the Reformed 

Churches (1898), pp. 139-160. 
Grundemann, R. : Neuer Missions-Atlas (1896), maps 24, 25. 
Guinness, M. G. : Story of the China Inland Mission (1894). 
GuNDERT, H. : Die Evangelische Mission (1894), pp. 334-355. 
Historical Sketches, Presbyterian Missions (1897), pp. 39-65. 
HoRNE, C. S. ; Story of the L. M. S., 1795-1895 (1895), ch. V. 
In Lands Afar (1897), pp. 207-264. 
Lawrence, E. A. : Modern Missions in the East (1894), pp. 

57-70. 
Lenker, J. N. : Lutherans in all Lands (1893), vol. I., pp. 

639-644. 
Leonard, D. L. : A Hundred Years of Missions (1895), pp. 

307-332. 
LovETT, R. : James Gilmour of Mongolia (1893), ch. II. 
LovETT, R. : Primer of Modern British Missions (n. d.), ch. V. 
Lton, D. W. : Sketch of the History of Protestant Missions in 

China (1895). 
Mabie, H. C. : In Brightest Asia (1891), chs. V.-XII. 
MacCracken and Piper : Leaders of Our Church Universal 

(1879). Life XXXVI. 
McLean, A. : Circuit of the Globe (1897), chs. XIX.-XXIX. 
Missionary Review of the World (1896), pp. 87-96; 1897, p. 123. 
MooREHEAD, M. W., Editor : The Student Missionary Enterprise 

(1894), see index, p. 366. 
MouLE, A. E. : China as a Mission Field (1891), pt. II. 
MouLE, A. E. : New China and Old (1892), ch. X. 
Nevius, J. L : China and the Chinese (1882), pp 300-331. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Picket Line of Missions (1897), chs. IV., V. 

Reid and Gracey : Missions and Missionary Society of the 

Methodist Episcopal Church (1895), vol. I., pp. 409-485; vol. 

II., pp. 9-177. 
Reports of the Boards of Missions of the Provinces of Canterbury 

and York on the Mission Field (1894), pp. 260-283. 
RoBSON, W. : Griffith John (n. d.). 
Stacy, T. H. : In the Path of Light Around the World (1895), 

ch. VI.-VIII. 
TowNSEND, W. J. : Robert Morrison (n. d.), especially ch. X. 
Walsh, W. P. : Modern Heroes of the Mission Field (1881), 

ch. IV. 
Williams, F. W. : Life and Letters of S. Wells Williams 

(1888), especially chs. III.-X. 
Williams, S. W. : Middle Kingdom (1882), vol. II., pp. 318- 

371; chs. XXIL, XXVI. 
Young, R. : Modern Missions, Their Trials and Triumphs 

(1884), pp. 100-138. 



ADDITIONAL READINGS FOR CHAPTER YIL 

Bainbridge, W. F. : Around the World Tour of Christian Mis- 
sions (1882). 

Brtson, M. I. t'^red. C. Roberts of Tientsin (1895), chs. VIL- 
XII. 

Bryson, M. I. : John Kenneth Mackenzie (n. d.). 

Centenary Conference on Foreign Missions, London, 1888, vol. 
II., pp. 266-272; 308-315. 

China Imperial Maritime Customs, Medical Reports, 1886-1890. 

Chinese Recorder for 1892, pp. 199-209 ; 362-367 ; 556-563 ; for 
1894, pp. 21-30; 66-72; 167-170; 172-174; 369-375; for 
1896, pp. 62-72 ; 116-124; 107-115; 331-334; 374-384; 432- 
440; for 1897, pp. 563-569; for 1898, pp. 51-69; 227-233. 

CoLTMAN, R. : The Chinese (1891), chs. VIII.-X. 

Conference on Missions at Liverpool, 1860, pp. 275, 276. 

Davis, J. A. : Leng Tso (1886). 

Du BosE, H. C. : Preaching in Sinim (1893), chs. IV., V., 
VIIL-XII. 

Dudgeon, J. : The Diseases of China (1877). 

Dukes, E. J. : Along River and Road in Fuh-kien (n. d.), chs. 
VL, IX., XII., XIII. 

Foster, A. : Christian Progress in China (1889), pp. 104-246. 

Henry, B. C. ; The Cross and the Dragon (1885), chs. XII.- 
XXI. 

HoDDER, E. : Conquests of the Cross (n. d.), see Index in vol. 
III. 

Jewett, F. G. : Luther Halsey Gulick (1895), ch. XXVIII. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Johnston, J. : China and Formosa (1897), ch. XIX. 
LocKHART, W. : The Medical Missionary in China (1861), chs. 

VI.-IX. 
Lowe, J. : Medical Missions (1887), ch. V. 
Mathews, G. D., Editor: Alliance of the Reformed Churches 

(1892), pp. 151-156. 
Mears, W. p. : Preservation of Health in the Far East (1895). 
Missionary Review of the Worlds 1894, pp. 371, 372. 
Mission Press in China (1895). 

Nevius, H. S. C. : Life of John Livingstone Nevius (1895), es- 
pecially ch. XXXV. 
Nevius, J. L. : China and the Chinese (1882), chs. XXII.-XXV. 
Nevius, J. L : Methods of Mission Work (1895). 
Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1877. 
Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1890. 
Second Triennial Meeting of the Educational Association of 

China (1896), pp. 178-180 ; 243-253. 
Spottiswoode, G. a. : Missionary Conference of the Anglican 

Communion (1894), pp. 213-221. 
Stevens and Markwick : Life, Letters and Journals of the Rev. 

and Hon. Peter Parker, M.D. (1896), ch. YIIL 
Stott, G. : Twenty-six Years of Missionary Work in China 

(1897). 
Student Missionary Appeal (1898), 331-335. 
Williamson, I. ; Old Highways in China (n. d.). 



ADDITIONAL READINGS FOR CHAPTER YIII. 

Barrows, J. H. , Editor : World's Parliament of Religions 

(1893), vol. IL, pp. 1137-1144. 
Broomhall, B. : Evangelization of the World (1887). 
China Mission Hand-Book (1896), pt. I., pp. 83-92. 
Chinese Recorder for 1891, pp. 371-373; for 1894, pp. 194-200; 

for 1895, pp. 151-161 ; 436-438 ; 501-508 ; for 1897, pp. 27- 

33, 67-71; 580, 581; for 1898, pp. 78-87, 161-169; 260-265; 

311-320. 
Conference on Foreign Missions, Mildmay, 1886, pp. 94-107. 
CuRZON, G. N. : Problems of the Far East (1896) chs. IX., X. 
Dennis, J. S. : Christian Missions and Social Progress (1897), 

vol. L, pp. 80-86. 
Dennis, J. S. : Foreign Missions after a Century (1893) pp. 76- 

85. 
Evangelization of China (1897). 
Graves, R. H. : Forty Years in China (1895). 
Guinness, G. : In the Far East (1889), ch. XV., XVL 
GuNBRT, R. S. : China, Present and Past (1895), chs. IV., V., X. 
Henry, B. C. : The Cross and the Dragon (1885), ch. XXV 



XVI BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Keltie and Eenwick : Statesman's Year-Book (1898), pp. 422- 

429. 
LiGGiNs, J. : Great Value and Success of Foreign Missions 

(1888), pp. 55-70. 
Martin, W. A. P. : A Cycle of Cathay (1896), pt. II. chs. XI.- 

XV. 
Martin, W. A. P. : Hanlin Papers, Second Series (1894), ch. 

XVII. 
Missionary Review of the Worlds 1892, pp. 81-91 ; 1896, pp. 

100-106; 372, 373; 510-512; 1897, pp. 95-102; 116-120; 

764-769; 1898, pp. 52-55 ; 127-132; 678-680; 684-688. 
Mott, J. E-. : Strategic Points in the World's Conquest (1897), 

ch. XV. 
MuiRHEAD, W. : China and the Gospel (1870), chs. VIII., IX. 
Nevius, J. L. : China and the Chinese (1882), chs. XXVII., 

XXVIII. 
Eeid : Glances at China (n. d.). chs. XXVIII., XXXIV. 
Richard, T. : The Awakening of China (1897). 
Ruddle, T. : Samuel Thomas Thome (1893), ch. XVI. 
Second Triennial Meeting of the Educational Association of 

China (1896), pp. 33-39. 
Smith, A. H. : Chinese Characteristics (1894), ch. XXVII. 
Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1877, pp. 

352-367. 
Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1890, pp. 11- 

22. 
Speer, R. E. : Missions and Politics in Asia (1898), lect. III. 
Student Missionary Appeal (1898), pp. 336-345. 
Taylor, Jo H. : China's Spiritual Need and Claims (1887). 
Williamson, A. : Journeys in North China (1870), vol. I., chs, 

I.-VI. 
Wilson, J. H. : China (1894), eh. XXI. 



ARTICLES OlSr CRT^A. T^ RECENT SECULAR 
PERIODICALS. 

Blackwood's Magazine : The Crisis in China, February, 1898. 

The Chinese Imbroglio, April, 1898. 

The Yellow Peril, June, 1898. 
Catholic Review : John Chinaman, January, 1898. 
Chambers's Journal: The Mineral Riches of China, March, 

1898. 
Chautauquan : Who will Exploit China ? January, 1898. 

Europe in China, and the Great Siberian Railway, May, 
1898. 
Contemporary Review : How China may be Saved, May, 1898. 
Cosmopolitan : The Land that is Central, March, 1898. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY XVll 



Edinhurgh Review : British Policy in China, July, 1898. 

Fortnightly : Germany in China, May, 1898. 

Forum : China and Chinese Railway Concessions, January, 

1898. 
Hdrper^s Monthly 3fagazine : The Situation in China, June, 

1898. 
National Review: The Coming Partition of China, March, 

1898. 
Great Britain's Future Policy in China, July, 1898. 
New Century Review : Life in China, April, 1898. 
Nineteenth Century : The Partition of China, January, 1898. 
North American Review : America's Interest in China, Febr^ 

ary, 1898. 



KEY TO PEONUNOIATION OP CHINESE 
WORDS 

The system of Eomanizing Chinese words followed in this 
book is that of Sir Thomas Wade as adapted to the Mandarin of 
Peking. While it is impossible to accurately pronounce Peking- 
ese without the aid of a native, and though it would be useless 
to pronounce accurately in China, if the tones were not acquired 
— as is still more impossible without a teacher — an approxima- 
tion is here offered that the prevalent atrocious pronunciation of 
Western lands may be modified and that a correct Chinese pro- 
nunciation may be more nearly attained. Only those letters and 
combinations of letters occasioning difficulty are given ; others 
are pronounced as in English. We would repeat that the sug- 
gestions here made will only enable the reader to gain an ap- 
proximate pronunciation of the Peking Mandarin, the Parisian 
of China. Only English equivalents or partial equivalents are 
given. Those who would gain a more accurate idea of Chinese 
pronunciation are referred to Wade and Hillier's '' Tzu £rh 
Chi.»' 



a as in father. 
ai as in aisle. 
ao as ow in now, 

* ch as J in^'ar. 
ch^ as in cTiange. 
e as in perch. 

e in eh^ en^ as in yet, whew. 

ex as ey in whe?/. 

^ hs as hss in hissmg^ when the 

first i is omitted. 
i as in machine, when it stands 

alone or at the end of a word. 
i as pin, when in before n and ng. 
ia as eo in geology. 
iao as e ou in me out. 
ie as in siesta. 

* ih as er in over. 

m as eu in Jehu, when h is omit- 
ted. 
^j as the first r in regular. 
•^ A: as ^ in ^ame. 

rC as K, 



ng as in sing. 

* as oa in boa-constrictor. 
ou as in sound. 

*p as b. 

p*- asp, 

rh as rr in burr. 

ss as in hiss. 

^tasd. 

fast. 

* ts as ds in pa(?5. 
^s' as in ca^s. 

* tz as ds in pac^s. 
tz'' as ts in ca^s. 

u as 00 in too. 

ua as oe o in shoe on. 

uai as o ey in two eyes. 

uei as way. 

ui as ewy in screwy. 

* M as final a in America. 

* u as French u or German it. 

* ua as French u plus a in an. 

* ue as French u plus e in yet. 



* Those thus marked have no close English equivalents. Conso- 
nants followed by an aspirate ( ') are almost like the same in English ; 
the same consonants without the aspirate are more difficult to cor- 
rectly pronounce. 



DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 



THE WORLD OF THE CHIISTESE 

Scope of the Text-book. — The first missionaries 
to China, men of the Buddhist faith, called the land 
Chin-tan, or Dawn. Centuries later, when the rulers 
of the T^ang dynasty had made the Empire the most 
polished nation of the world, the Hills of T'^ang be- 
came the popular name for the whole land, a desig- 
nation still frequently used in regions south of the 
Yang-tzu Kiang. This little volume does not pre- 
tend to discuss fully either the land or the people of 
China. All that is attempted is to furnish a glimpse 
of the hills and men of T^ang, and to sketch, in out- 
line, the Christian dawn as it is touching mountain 
and plain, city and hamlet, throughout this most pop- 
ulous empire. It should further be stated that, in- 
asmuch as there is so little missionary work attempted 
among the sparsely settled Chinese dependencies, 
attention will be restricted to missions within China 
Proper, Sheng-ching, in southern Manchuria, being 
regarded as a nineteenth province. 

'* What's in a Name ? '* — Of ten thousand Chi- 
nese hearing the word China, probably not more than 
one would have any idea that it referred to his native 
country. Their own names for the Empire and the 
designations by which it has been known in history 
demand a mementos attention. 

1. Early occidental names applied to this land 
seem to have varied according to the direction from 



DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 



which it was approached. When reached by the 
northern land ronte^ it was known to the ancients 
as Seres^ and to the Middle Ages as Cathay. The 
Latin word Seres may have been derived from the 
Chinese character for silk^ ssu^ and seems to have 
come into use in the Han dynasty^ as it was a name 
familiar to the Augustan poets. Cathay^ the mediae- 
val designation^ is from Khitan^ a race of Tartar con- 
querors^ who subjugated the northern provinces dur- 
ing the tenth and eleventh centuries^ and thus gave 
to North China the name Khitai*. 

Travellers by the southern sea route knew the Em- 
pire^ or its people^ by the terms Sin^ Sinae, Chin, 
China, and Tsinistae. The occurrence of the name 
China in the Laws of Manu and the Mahabhdrata 
may indicate that the Hindus had intercourse with 
the Chinese at an early period, though other peoples 
may have been referred to under this name. The 
apparently cognate Hebrew word Sinim (Isaiah 
xlix. 12) is regarded by many exegetes as referring to 
China. It is probable that this group of names finds 
its origin in the dynastic appellation of Ts'^in or 
Ch4n, a family which, in 221 B.C., subdued all 
China. This sept had been powerful from its rise, 
more than six centuries earlier, especially in the 
western half of the country. 

2. Native appellatio7is are various. Hua Hsiay Flow- 
ery Hsia, T'ang Shan, Hills of T'^ang, and Ta CJiHng 
Kuo, Great Pure Kingdom, are phrases derived from 
celebrated dynasties of the past and present, while 
the commonest name, Chung Kuo, Middle Kingdom, 
points back to the time, more than 3,000 years ago, 
when the Chou dynasty called the royal domain — 
located in modern Ho-nan — by that name, because 
it was in the centre surrounded by its feudal states. 
Ssu Hai [all within], the Four Seas, and THen Hsia, 
Beneath the Sky, are very ancient appellations, while 
Chin-tan, Dawn, and Tung T*u, Land of the East — 
a Mohammedan name — are of comparatively recent 
date. Our phrase, the Celestials, comes from THen 



THE WORLD OF THE CHINESE 



Ch'ao, Heavenly Dynasty, meaning the kingdom 
which is ruled over by the d3masty appointed by 
Heaven. Chung Hiia Ktio, Middle Flowery King- 
dom, does not so much refer to a land of flowers as 
to the fact that the Chinese regard themselves as 
among the most polished and civilized of nations 
(cf. our word flowery in its rhetorical sense). 

China's Place in Asia. — A glance at the map 
will show the favorable position occupied by the 
Empire. To the north lies comparatively barren and 
largely frigid Siberia. To the west and southwest 
are the dry regions of Central Asia, Afghanistan, 
Baluchistan, Persia, and Arabia. India and south- 
eastern Asia are fruitful and populous, but their in- 
habitants are subject to the enervating influences of 
the tropics, while the Asiatic lands of the Bible are 
less favored than is China. Japan and Formosa and 
portions of Korea are as fortunately located as she, 
but are of very limited extent. What is the signifi- 
cance of China^s natural advantages as they affect 
Asia ? With a sea-coast upward of 2,000 miles in 
length, with a soil of remarkable fertility, open to the 
ocean winds and watered by noble rivers, with a terri- 
tory lying almost entirely within the temperate zone, 
and containing beneath its surface mineral wealth of 
untold value, China has not only been able to maintain 
a large population during past millenniums, but in all 
probability she is also destined to be in the future 
the home of Asians most numerous and influential in- 
habitants. 

Areas with Some Comparisons. — Owing to un- 
certainty as to a portion of its boundary and to in- 
adequate surveys, areas are only approximate ; conse- 
quently the estimates of different authorities greatly 
vary. 

1. According to the '^ Statesman's Year-Book, 
1898,^' * the area of the Evipire — including China 

* Unless otherwise stated, the statistics of population and 
areas contained in this chapter are taken from this standard 
work. 



DAWN ON THE HILLS OF TANG 



Proper^ and its dependencies, Manchuria, Mongolia, 
Tibet, Jnngaria, and East Turkestan — is 4,218,401 
square miles. It is thus equal to that of the United 
States, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and all of 
Mexico to a line a little beyond the Isthmus of Te- 
huantepec combined. Applied to the map of Europe 
this area would include every country with the excep- 
tion of about one-fourth of Kussia, while on the map of 
Asia it equals all its southern portion from Cochin 
China to the Mediterranean, and a strip extending 
north to include Turkestan, together with the Japan- 
ese Empire on the northeast. It should be remem- 
bered that within this last-named region lies the so- 
called ^^ Continent ^^ of India, if one would realize the 
vast extent of the Chinese Empire. 

2. The area of China Proper is not much more 
than one-third of the total extent of the Empire, 
measuring 1,312,328 square miles. Compared with 
familiar standards, it is equal to nearly one and a half 
times that part of the United States lying east of the 
Mississippi. Its territory would furnish more than 
enough material for ten United Kingdoms, there 
would be unused land after France had been laid 
down upon it six times over, and India without Bur- 
ma would extend beyond China^s limits only by a 
slight fringe. 

An idea of the corresponding latitudes and longi- 
tudes bounding China Proper can be gained if we sup- 
pose it superimposed on the United States. The city 
of Mukden, in the remote northeast, may be placed 
on Boston. Its southernmost island will then lie upon 
. Yucatan, Havana roughly corresponding in position 
with Canton. Its southwestern boundary will almost 
touch the Mexican coast to the north of Tampico. 
Kansas City will be near the northwestern boundary, 
if the extension of the province of Kan-su be neglected, 
and the northern frontier will thence pass through 
Chicago and Detroit back to Boston again. 

Striking Physical Features. — Sloping to the 
eastward and to the southeast from the lofty '^ roof of 



THE WORLD OF THE CHINESE 



the world ^^ in Central Asia, the territory is seen to be 
alternately furrowed by extensive river systems, and 
divided up by mountain-ridges and hills, which cover 
the country save in the northeastern quarter, where 
there is an immense delta plain, one of the most no- 
ticeable features of the Empire. 

1. The numerous rivers and many canals of China 
form its frequented highways. The two largest of 
these rivers — ho is the term commonly used for river 
in the north, as kiang (chiang) is in the south — are 
the Huang Ho, Yellow River, and the Kiang River, 
less properly called the Yang-tzii, or Son of Ocean, as 
its incorrectly written form is translated. 

The Huang Ho receives its name from the yellow 
clay deposit which it takes up in its course through 
the loess region of the provinces of Shan-hsi and 
Shen-hsi, the same deposit giving its color and name 
to the Yellow Sea also. As it reaches the Great Plain, 
this clay silts up the river-channel until its bed is in 
some places almost as high as the surrounding coun- 
try. Naturally, in times of unusual freshets, the illy 
constructed dikes are broken through, the populous 
low-lying plain is overwhelmed with ruin, and occa- 
sionally — ten times in the last 2,500 years— the river 
opens a new channel to the sea. Its right to the ap- 
pellation of ^^China^s Sorrow ^^ will be granted when 
it is remembered that every such outbreak means the 
wholesale destruction of crops, the melting down of 
numberless adobe houses, and an enormous loss of 
human life — millions having perished in the over- 
flow of 1887, for example. 

Far more useful is the Tang-tzu, called ^^ the girdle 
of China, ^^ because of its central position and the 
number of provinces through which it passes. Rising 
in Tibet, not far from the sources of the Huang Ho, 
this mighty river stands first in the world for ar- 
rangement of subsidiary streams which make its en- 
tire basin accessible from the sea. Ocean steamers 
readily reach Nanking ; river steamers can ascend as 
far as I-ch^ang, and a small steamer has just passed 



DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 



through the rapids into the heart of Ssu-ch^nan ; 
while native boats navigate it as far as remote Ytin- 
nan. The opening up of this river — whose basin, 
with its 12,000 miles of navigable waterway, occu- 
pies nearly one-half of China Proper — to the trade of 
the Occident is an important factor in China's future 
development. These and other smaller yet very im- 
portant rivers are her glory, and '"'no country can 
compare with her for natural facilities of inland 
navigation. ^^ 

2. The lahes of the Empire are unimportant, 
though in some sections they are very numerous, 
as in Koko-nor, known by the Chinese as the '^ Sea 
of Stars/^ because of its many lakelets. They are 
usually quite picturesque and support a large aquatic 
population, whose fleets of boats thickly dot their 
waters. The largest one, T'^ung-ting Hu, is about 
the size of our Great Salt Lake, and lies in the centre 
of China, giving its name to the provinces Hu-pei and 
Hu-nan — '^ North of the Lake ^^ and '^ South of the 
Lake.^^ 

3. The various mountain ranges cannot be spoken 
of in detail. In general it may be said that starting 
from the Central Asian mountain system they trav- 
erse the western and southern provinces, decreasing 
in height as they approach the coast. Naturally, 
with this difference in elevation the rugged sides and 
snowy summits of the western ranges give place to 
the wooded tops and carefully cultivated terraces of 
the southeastern hills. Koughly speaking, that por- 
tion of China lying west of the longitude of Canton 
is mountainous, while the region lying east of that 
same meridian and south of the Yang-tzii Eiver is 

hilly. 

4. The Great Plain occupies the remaining north- 
eastern section of the Empire, and forms its richest 

?ortion. Extending from a point somewhat north of 
'eking to a short distance below the Yang-tzii, with 
an average breadth of two hundred miles in its north- 
ern portion and four hundred miles in its southern. 



THE WORLD OF THE CHINESE 



it contains an area equal to that of the New Eng- 
land and Middle States, together with Maryland and 
Virginia. This plain is simply the slowly accumu- 
lating delta of the Huang Ho, aided somewhat by the 
Yang-tzii. If historical statements can be trusted, 
the former river is encroaching upon the Yellow Sea 
at the rate of from seventy to one hundred feet per 
year. 

The significant fact concerning this plain is the 
vast population which it supports, it being estimated 
that one hundred and seventy-seven millions live upon 
that little strip of country, an average of nearly eight 
hundred and fifty per square mile. The states named 
above as its equivalent in area, though among the 
most densely populated in America, had in 1890 only 
a little over twenty million inhabitants, or an average 
of less than ninety-one per square mile. Bengal, the 
most thickly inhabited province of India, has four 
hundred and seventy-one per square mile, while the 
density of Belgium^s population, which leads in Eu- 
ropean statistics, is but five hundred and seventy-one 
per square mile. Thus the Great Plain, with its 
mountain spur in eastern Shan-tung, is more densely 
settled by far than any other equally large portion of 
the world. 

5. The fertility of this Plain is largely accounted 
for by the loess formation which is characteristic of 
the northern provinces, adding fertility to the soil 
and grotesqueness to the topography. Though many 
competent geologists have styled the loess ^' the 
most difla.cult geological problem, ^^ its appearance 
and characteristics are thus accurately described by 
Baron von Eichthofen : ^^The loess is a solid friable 
earth of brownish-yellow color, and when triturated 
with water, not unlike loam, but difEering from it by 
its highly porous and tubular structure ; these tubes 
are often lined with a film of lime, and ramify like 
the roots of plants. ... It spreads alike both 
over high and low ground, smoothing off the irregu- 
larities of the surface^ and its thickness often consid- 



DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 



erably exceeds 1^000 feet. It is not stratified, and has 
a tendency to vertical cleavage. ... It is very 
fertile, and requires little manure. ^^ This last char- 
acteristic has made it possible for farmers to raise two 
excellent crops year after year on the same plot of 
ground for many centuries. In the mountainous 
regions of the northern frontiers it furnishes comfort- 
able homes to many thousands, who excavate rooms 
in the side of loess cliffs, and live more comfortably 
in them than do the troglodytes of any other land. 

Two serious drawlacks arising from the loess for- 
mation are the dust-storms, which occur quite fre- 
quently in the winter, and the bad roads, due to the 
friable nature of the soil. The writer has journeyed 
over highways in northern Shan-hsi that were narrow 
canyons nearly fifty feet in depth, formed by the pul- 
verization of the soil by cart traffic, the dust being 
swept away by the first strong wind or heavy rain. 

6. Chinese scenery is as varied as a tropical and a 
cold climate, lofty mountains and low-lying hills, 
elevated plateaus and monotonous plains rising only 
a few feet above the ocean, parched and sterile areas 
and fertile districts bathed in moisture, would lead 
one to expect. While the gorges of the great rivers 
and the scenery of the w^estern highlands are the most 
striking scenic features, there is a quiet beauty no 
less attractive as one gazes upon the terraced and 
carefully cultivated hills of the southeast, and the 
matchless mosaic formed by differing crops of the 
multitudinous farms of the Great Plain, which serve 
as a setting for adobe hamlets embowered in elms, 
willows, and the so-called date-trees. 

Most striking to the occidental traveller are the 
massive walls of China^s more than 1,700 walled cities, 
often overgrown in the south with roses and honey- 
suckle, and reminding one everywhere of dreams of the 
mediaeval period in European history. Almost equally 
impressive are the evidences everywhere present in 
the littoral provinces, and in those bordering on the 
Yang-tzii, of a ^^ country overburdened with a popu- 



THE WORLD OF THE CHINESE 



lation wliicli swarms about yon wherever yon go. The 
fields are everywhere full of laborers ; in the monn- 
tainons districts yon will see scores of terraces, rising 
above one another to the height of 500 or 1,000 feet, 
and the hills cultivated in many places to their very 
tops. Pedestrians are everywhere seen in the roads 
and by-paths ; the rivers and numerous canals are 
filled with boats, and a great variety of busy artisans 
ply their crafts in the noisy streets of the cities and 
villages/^ 

Climatic Conditions. — 1. The te77tperatnre yavies 
greatly, but its average is lower than in any other 
country of the same latitude. The isothermal line 
of 70® F. as the average for the year, passing north of 
Canton, runs through ISTew Orleans, which is eight 
degrees north of it. That of 60° F., passing through 
Shanghai, is the same as the isotherm of St. Louis and 
San Francisco, while that of Peking passes through 
Philadelphia. ^^ Oanton,^^ Williams writes, ^'^is the 
coldest place on the globe in its latitude, and the only 
place within the tropics where snow falls near the 
seashore. One result of this projection of the tem- 
perate zone into the tropical is seen in the greater 
vigor and size of the people of the three southern 
provinces over any races on the same parallel else- 
where, and the productions are not so strictly tropical. ""^ 

3. The rainfall in the north does not average much 
over sixteen inches, in Canton it is seventy inches 
per annum, while in the remote west it is prevailingly 
dry. Almost all of the eastern half of the Empire 
has a wet season of two months during the summer, 
the rest of the year being almost rainless. In the 
north the winters are superb. Cloudless skies, except 
for the dust-storms, and bracing cold act as a tonic 
to the foreigner. 

3. Missionaries and other Occidentals find China 
fairly healthful. While cholera, small-pox, and 
fevers are common, and local diseases, like the leprosy 
of the south and the bubonic plague of Hongkong 
and Canton affect many natives, foreigners are rarely 



lO DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

attacked, and with proper precautions may safely 
dwell in every province. 

Wealth of the Empire. — 1. The Chinese are 
for the most part agriculturists, and derive their sus- 
tenance from a fertile, wisely tilled soil. They can 
scarcely be called farmers, as land is occupied in such 
small holdings that gardening and fruit-culture are 
the result. An incessant use of the hoe, an applica- 
tion of every particle of fertilizer obtainable, even to 
refuse hair from the barber^s razor, and unstinting 
irrigation, when required, insure abundant crops. 
All the cereals, most of the vegetables common in 
America, a variety of fruits, including some of tropical 
character, can be had, while the opium poppy, the 
mulberry for silk raising, and the tea-shrub are largely 
grown also. 

2. Along the water-courses and on the lakes are 
found populations numbering many millions, who 
thrive on the aquatic resources of the Empire. Fish 
swarm in the seas and rivers, and are found even in 
pools. Wild water-fowl are netted or shot ; frogs are 
ingeniously caught in large numbers, and the duck- 
boats, accompanying along the rivers artificially 
hatched ducklings, are a source of great profit. 

3. The mineral wealth of China is enormous, but 
thus far has hardly been touched, largely because of 
superstitious regard for f^ng-shui — wind and water. 
All the common metals, except platina, a.re found, 
but coal and iron are most important. The coal 
measures are twenty times more extensive than those 
of Great Britain, and are conveniently distributed 
throughout the provinces. Not only are these fields 
exceptionally rich, but, owing to the thickness of the 
seams and their horizontal position, they can be more 
readily worked than the mines in any other part of 
the world. Professor Keane does not go beyond facts 
when he says that '^ next to agriculture the main re- 
source of China lies in the ground itself, which har- 
bors supplies of ores and coal sufficient, some day, to 
revolutionize the trade of the world/^ 



THE WORLD OF THE CHINESE II 

4. All the aboye-mentioned sources of wealth are 
made effective by an abundant supply of patient and 
willing labor. The English navy and British sailor 
may be unexcelled by any of their class in the world, 
the patent-devising Yankee may not find his equal in 
other lands, Germany may stand pre-eminent in point 
of laborious and exhaustive scholarship, but China 
will not yield the palm to any nation in the matter of 
ability to labor in field and water and mine under the 
most exhausting and unfavorable circumstances ; and 
herein lies a secret of the prophecy of her fitness to 
survive through all the future. 

Chinese View of the World. — 1. To the aver- 
age Chinese, the icorld is a synonym for China, as 
the names T4en Hsia, All beneath the sky, and Ssu 
Hai, All between the four seas, indicate. Concern- 
ing this territory he ought to know very exactly, for 
no country has so many carefully written local topo- 
graphical works as China possesses. As a matter of 
fact, however, owing to lack of facilities for rapid 
intercommunication, their love for home, and their 
failure to teach geography in schools, even literary 
graduates are wofully ignorant of remote provinces. 
Since the Jesuit missionaries, in 1708-18, surveyed 
the Empire, corrections have not been made in their 
maps to correspond with changes in provincial boun- 
daries, so that it is impossible for even the most 
interested to gain accurate information concerning 
the Chinese world. Still, the wild ideas of their own 
country, so far as the marvellous is concerned, could 
be easily remedied, if such local geography as they 
have were taught. 

2. Ask a well-read native, living in the interior, 
about the extra- Chinese vjorld, and he may give you 
the most fantastic answers, derived from Chinese 
works on foreign geography written a century or more 
ago. 

Ordinary maps are a sight to behold. Beyond 
their own frontiers, islands, kingdoms, and continents 
are promiscuously distributed, with important omis- 



12 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

sions and equally remarkable exaggerations. ^^ The 
two Americas and Africa are entirely omitted on 
most of them^ and England^ Holland^ and Portugal, 
Goa, Lugonia, Bokhara, Germany, France, and India 
are arranged along the western side, from north to 
south, in a series of islands and headlands. The 
southern and eastern sides are similarly garnished by 
islands, as Japan, Lewchew, Formosa, Siam, Burma, 
Java, the Sulu Islands, and others, while Eussia occu- 
pies the whole of the northern frontier of their 
Middle Kingdom.-''' 

Common ideas about these countries — where any 
ideas at all are present — are equally bizarre. The 
earth is an immense stationary plain. ^^In some 
parts of its surface,^^ says Williams, ^^ they imagine 
its inhabitants to be all dwarfs, who tie themselves 
together in bunches for fear of being carried away 
by the eagles ; in others they are all women, who con- 
ceive by looking at their shadows ; and in a third 
kingdom all the people have holes in their breasts, 
through which they thrust a pole, when carrying one 
another from place to place. ^^ 

3. Foreigners at close range are not discriminat- 
ingly understood by the Chinese. They hold that 
opium was forced down their throats at the mouth of 
English cannon, and hear from their countrymen in 
America of the injustice and persecution often en- 
dured by them there. Sailors from Christian nations 
roam through Chinese ports in a state of lawless 
intoxication, and encourage impure women to walk 
the streets in a most brazen-faced manner, so that 
native officials of Shanghai, some years ago, entered 
at foreign consulates a formal protest against such 
open violations of morality. Stereoscopic and other 
views of the most obscene character are bought from 
foreigners by peep-show men and penetrate hundreds 
of miles into the interior. 

And when they come in contact with foreigners in 
commercial or diplomatic circles, the fame of the 
Shanghai horse-races makes many feel that the for- 



THE WORLD OF THE CHINESE 13 

eign devil has come to establish such races in their 
city. A game of cricket or lawn- tennis is a profound 
mystery to them; why should men so laboriously 
exert themselves, unless it is a new and most profit- 
able form of gambling, or a contention for stakes ? 
A morning constitutional is interpreted as a search 
for gold, an excursion for the purpose of planting 
little men, or a religious duty, inasmuch as walking- 
sticks are carried and are often aimlessly waved in the 
air. A foreigner walks arm-in-arm with his wife, or a 
party of both sexes dine together, and Chinese ideas 
of propriety are shocked beyond measure, especially 
if the ladies are in evening dress or possess a wasp- 
like waist. 

What wonder, then, that the missionary in a new 
locality is a living interrogation point in their minds. 
He is carefully watched, and it is reported that his 
wife has light hair ; why does she not use ink, to 
cause it to conform to the orthodox color ? How can 
she be so unfilial as to be living in China, when her 
rightful mistress, her mother-in-law, is a myriad of 
miles away ? Her garments, too, are so odd, and her 
husband^s coat has buttons on the middle of the back, 
and they have a stove, with no one knows how many 
lumps of coal burning in it all at once ! Kumor says, 
moreover, that there are unmarried ladies in the mis- 
sion station ; how account for women having reached 
the age of thirty and being single yet ? Probably the 
reason for this is that they had such bad tempers that 
no would-be mother-in-law was found heroic enough 
to consent to the marriage; or perhaps a more sinister 
reason is suggested, if the male missionary frequently 
calls upon them. Even the wonder-working medical 
missionary does not escape the tongue of the gossip- 
monger. He works great cures — yes, but do you not 
know that he also gouges out eyes and digs out 
hearts ? No marvel that with good Chinese hearts 
and eyes to aid them, foreigners can compound magic 
medicines and construct heaven-piercing telescopes. 
And so on endlessly. 



14 DAJVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

4. If one would understand the views concerning 
their own superiority and the great inferiority of the 
other nations, prevalent among even Chinese scholars, 
the facts above mentioned must be borne in mind. 
Their prejudice against foreigners is quite largely 
due to ignorance. Happily, the increase of mission 
schools, in which Western geography is taught, the 
establishment of higher government institutions for 
training in the Western sciences, the increasing num- 
ber of readers of Christian and scientific books and 
periodicals among the literati, and above all wider 
contact between China and the Western Powers — ren- 
dered necessary by wars and growing international 
complications — are rapidly transforming their crude 
and grotesque views, and the consequent prejudices 
are disappearing, especially in the coast and Yang- 
tze provinces. 



II 

CHINA^S II^HERITAKCE FROM THE PAST 

Character of Chinese Historical Records. — 

1. Credihility. Like most nations whose existence 
dates from remote antiquity^ China^s early history 
fades away through the legendary into the mythical 
realm. Yet the Chinese historian does not claim for 
these early ages any genuine historicity. He men- 
tions them just as modern writers speak of the Ho- 
meric legends in writing of Greece^ or of Komulus and 
Kemus in treating of Kome. It must be admitted^ 
however^ that their historians have gone back further 
into the mists of antiquity than most Western scholars 
care to follow them. So famous a writer as Chu Hsi, 
e,g,, begins his history with Fu Hsi, 2852 B.C., while 
other native histories commence their chronology 
with the sixty-first year of Huang Ti, 2637 B.C. 

When once they have reached genuinely historic 
times, which can safely be put in the Chou dynasty, 
founded earlier than the reign of David and Solomon, 
Chinese historians are more trustworthy than those 
of most other nations ; though some discredit is 
thrown upon annals preceding Shih Huang-ti, the 
Great Wall builder, two centuries before Christ, ow- 
ing to the fact that he ordered a wholesale destruction 
of books. 

2. The material for compiling Chinese history 
comes from four main sources, the Bamboo Books, the 
ancient classics, especially the ^*^ Books of History, ^^ 
and the ^^ Spring and Autumn Annals, ^^ local annals 
and dynastic records. Tlie local annals classify under 
twenty-four headings everything that can be known 
concerning even the smallest district in the Empire, 
as well as each province. 

15 



l6 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

Dynastic histories are officially prepared by histo- 
rians of the right hand, who record the facts of the 
reign, and those of the left hand, whose duty it is to 
report imperial speeches, charges, etc. Their in- 
structions require these state historiographers to ac- 
company the Emperor at all times, noting and dating 
everything, and at the end of each month these rec- 
ords are sealed up and deposited in a desk, whence, 
at the end of the year, they are transferred to the 
care of the Inner Council. Not until a given dynasty 
ceases, and a new line assumes the imperial yellow, 
are these records taken from the iron safe and given 
to the world. Fearless and faithful annals are thus 
provided for, though absolute accuracy is not always 
secured, even with such admirable precautions. 

3. The literary character of these writings is de- 
cidedly disappointing. Like the compilers of Prot- 
estant church history who prepared the Magdeburg 
Centuries, Chinese historians write under categories, 
thus producing a monotonous set of formulae, so to 
speak, with blanks filled in as facts require. Dynastic 
historians carefully refrain from any reflections or 
comparisons ; they make simple statements only, after 
the manner of Confucius in his ^^ Spring and Autumn 
Annals. ^^ The minuteness and exhaustive prolixity 
of their historians may be judged from the fact that 
the Bureau of Military History reported that their 
account of two rebellions occurring in our century 
fills 360 volumes, while the local history of the city of 
Su-chou has forty volumes, and that of the province 
of Kuang-tung is in 182 volumes. 

China's Prehistoric Dawn. — If this age is sub- 
divided into a mythological and a legendary period, 
it is not strictly prehistoric ; for doubtless much 
that has been written of the legendary period is true 
history. 

1. The mythological ages cover from 45,000 to 
500,000 years. Though this is absurdly long, it is as 
nothing compared with the kalpas of India, ^^ whose 
highest era^ called the Unspeakably Inexpressible, 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST l*J 

requires 4,456^448 ciphers following a unit to repre- 
sent it/^ 

Within this period lies Chinese cosmogony with its 
theory of a T^ai CM, or Great Extreme — the ultimate 
immaterial principle of Chinese philosophers — and of 
the dual powers^ yin and yang. P^an Ku first ap- 
pears after heaven and earth are separated, and begins 
his eighteen thousand years^ task of chiselling out of 
formless granite, floating in space, the sun, moon, and 
stars. Companions with him during these ages are 
Ohina^'s famous fabulous animals, the dragon, phoenix, 
and tortoise, ^^progenitors with himself of the ani- 
mal creation/^ 

After his death, in which every portion of his body 
accrues to the benefit of his universe — even to the 
parasites, which become men — three great sovereigns 
or families of brothers, possessed of monstrous form, 
rule the world for from 18,000 to 432,000 years. 
Following the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Human 
Sovereigns, come two monarchs, one the Nest-having, 
who may have invented nests or abodes for his sub- 
jects, and the other Fire Producer, a Chinese Pro- 
metheus who brought down fire from heaven for 
man^s use. 

2. The legendary period is universally regarded as 
beginning with the monarch Fu Hsi, but its later limit 
is questioned, some saying that it ceases with the be- 
ginning of the Chou dynasty, 1122 B.C., and others 
limiting it by the accession of Yao, 2357 B.C., or by 
the year 781 B.C. 

Between Fu Hsi^s reign and that of Yao, the Chi- 
nese place nearly all the inventions and the formula- 
tion of those ethical and governmental theories which 
have distinguished the life of China from the earliest 
times. Yet it is not until we reach the reign of Yao 
and his successor Shun that we find Confucius and 
Mencius making any great use of Chinese history. 
If, with Dr. Legge, we regard Yii as the founder of 
the Empire — as he was of the Hsia dynasty in 2205 
B.C. — we still find ourselves surrounded with legend- 



l8 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

ary mists which do not clear away until T^ang, the 
Successful, established the succeeding Shang dynasty 
in 1766 B.C. — nearly as long before the Christian era 
as our Declaration of Independence dates after it. 
The reason that may possibly have led Confucius and 
Mencius to place their Golden Age earlier than this 
in the reigns of Yao and Shun — who were doubtless 
real and able rulers, but whose history is deeply tinged 
with legendary coloring — is thus stated by Dr. Will- 
iams : '' Whatever was their real history, those sages 
showed great sagacity in going back to those remote 
times for models and fixing upon a period neither 
fabulous nor certain, one which prevented alike the 
cavils of scepticism and the appearance of complete 
fabrication.''^ 

3. The residuum of fact underlying the story of 
this prehistoric and legendary period proves that 
China possessed culture and civilization at a time 
when only the Egyptian, the Chaldean, and the Hittite 
had risen above the level of surrounding nations. 
Forty centuries ago — nearly a thousand years before 
the earliest assured event in Greek history, the Dorian 
invasion, and a century before Abraham was born — 
we find in North China, in the modern province of 
Shan-hsi, a people with institutions, government, and 
religion, with a fairly well-developed literature and a 
knowledge of sciences and arts. 

This much is generally agreed to by scholars ; but 
.there is greater diversity of opinion when the ques- 
tions are asked. Whence came the Chinese? From 
luhat source tuas their culture derived? Whether the 
question is answered by the record found in Genesis, 
chs. ix.-xi., or by the researches of archasologists, the 
usual reply to the first query is, that the Chinese 
originally came from the region lying below the 
Caspian Sea, and entered China from the northwest, 
settling along the banks of the Yellow Eiver. 

The origin of Chinese culture is a more difficult 
problem to solve. The main answers given are, the 
plain of Shinar, Egypt or an Egyptian colony. 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST I9 

Scythia^ India^ and a denial of any Western origin. 
As some eighty eminent Sinologues^ Assyriologists, 
and Orientalists assent to the main conclusions elab- 
orately argued for by Professor Dr. Terrien de Lacou- 
perie, the prevalent verdict may be said to point to 
Babylonia and Elam as the springs whence China^s 
early culture flowed. 

Key Characters in Chinese History. — The 
student desirous of understanding China^'s past, 
must make himself familiar with certain characters 
whose names and deeds are well known to every 
scholar^ and some of which are household names. 

1. The ruler practically, though not theoretically, 
stands first in order among men. One must know 
the accepted history, partly legendary, no doubt, of 
the early rulers Yao^ Shim^ and Yil:> and of the his- 
toric kings W^n and Wu, as well as Duke Chou. 
These are worthy of double honor, since they are ac- 
counted sages as well as rulers. From an occidental 
rather than a Chinese stand-point, one must learn the 
true position of the much maligned SMh Huang-ti, 
of wall-building and literature-destroying fame, who 
has been called the Napoleon of China. The second 
T^ang sovereign, T'ai Tsung, who after death was 
styled the Literary-Martial Emperor, must be known ; 
for he ^^ may be regarded as the most accomplished 
monarch in the Chinese annals — famed alike for his 
wisdom and his nobleness, his conquests and good 
government, his temperance, cultivated tastes, and 
patronage of literary men.^^ His dominions, more- 
over, extended as far west as the Caspian Sea. Nor 
must one be ignorant of the Empress Wic, wife of the 
son of the famous T^ai Tsung, who during the last two 
decades of the seventh century made herself famous as 
well as infamous ; though it is doubtless true that to 
support their favorite thesis that women ought not to 
meddle with government, native historians have un- 
duly blackened her character. No one who has tasted 
Marco Polo^s story of Kublai Khan will be in dan- 
ger of neglecting that hero of the Yiian dynasty. 



20 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

thongli here again the Chinese do not so much ad- 
mire their foreign sovereign as Occidentals are likely 
to do. K'ang Hsi^ the second Emperor of the present 
dynasty, is more celebrated than almost any other 
Asiatic sovereign, rivalling if not surpassing T^ai 
Tsung. His record is of the utmost interest to Chi- 
nese and foreigner alike. And, of course, no friend 
of China will care to be ignorant of the reigning Em- 
peror, Kuang Hsu, Succession of Light, and of the 
scarcely less famous rulers of the Empire during his 
minority, the Empress Doivager — one of the most re- 
markable of Manchu women — and Li Hung-chang. 

2. We do not need to speak of the sages, as most 
of them pose also as rulers, and have been already 
mentioned. Of the philosophers and noted literary 
men, Lao-tzU, the founder of the Taoist sect, is first 
in point of time, and though contemporary with Con- 
fucius, he was perhaps a keener thinker and a more 
enlightened man than his more famous compeer. 
'^ The throneless King^^ is no empty title for K^ung 
Fu-tzii, Philosopher K^ung, Latinized into Confucius. 
Probably no one has exerted a more extensive in- 
fluence among men than this last officially recognized 
Chinese sage. His alter ego is Mencius or M^ng-tzu, 
though he lived nearly two centuries later. He is to 
Confucius very much what Plato was to Socrates. 
Chu Fu'tzu, who flourished 700 years ago, is perhaps 
China^s greatest philosopher and teacher, and it is 
his interpretation of the Classics that constitutes 
present-day Confucianism. These are the commonly 
mentioned names among a host of great philosophers 
and teachers, but Western readers will find more to 
their taste, perhaps, the works of the heretic Micius, 
who laid it down as a duty ^^ to love all equally, ^^ or 
those of Chuang-tzu, the great Taoist philosopher, 
mystic, and magician, ^^ whose writings have been de- 
scribed as ^ a storm of dazzling effects."' ^^ 

The student of Chinese general literature must 
become acquainted with China^s Herodotus, Ssu-ma 
ChHen, the scarcely less illustrious Han historian, Pan 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST 21 

Ku, and Ssu-ma Kuang of the Sung dynasty^ who 
was statesman as well as historian, and the author of 
^' General Mirror to Aid in Governing/^ Nor can one 
afford to be ignorant of the heptameters of the fa- 
mous T^ang poets Li T'ai-pai and Tu Fu, or of the 
one hundred and fifteen volumes of the Sung poet, Su 
Tung-p^o, Less weariness is experienced as the for- 
eigner takes up ChHn Shou's ^' History of the Three 
States/^ replete as it is with graphic descriptions of 
plot and counterplot, battles, sieges, and retreats, 
character delineations and episodes, all composed in 
a style known to the Chinese vulgar asjenao, hot 
racket, or most interesting. Dr. Xi, author of the 
^^ Herbal, ^^ must be a familiar name to the medical 
missionary, as also that of the JEsculapius of the 
Chinese Pantheon, Hua T'o. Modern Dry-as-dusts 
will desire to know Ma Tuan-lin, the author of 
^^ Complete Antiquarian Eesearches,^'' in three hun- 
dred and forty-eight chapters, "^o book has been 
more drawn upon by Europeans for information con- 
cerning matters relating to Eastern Asia than this."^^ 
This work, the first to deserve the name of encyclo- 
paedia, introduces the occidental student to an illus- 
trious line of encyclopaedists. Thus, the third em- 
peror of the last dynasty, Yung Lo, ^^ Eternal Joy,"*^ 
appointed a commission of two thousand members, 
who prepared a manuscript encyclopaedia of 22,937 
chapters, while the second emperor of the present 
dynasty, K^ang Hsi, appointed another commission, 
who, after forty years, finished with volume 5,020 
the ^^ Imperially Ordered Complete Collection of An- 
cient and Modern Literature, with Illustrations.'^ 

3. Illustrious women of China gain fame for the 
most part by methods decidedly unique. There are 
in the Empire more outward evidences of feminine 
renown than of the greatness of Chinese statesmen, 
warriors, and scholars. These usually take the form 
of honorary portals, erected by Imperial rescript in 
honor of distinguished women. Dr. Faber estimates 
that they may average one to every million women 



22 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T*ANG 

dnring the past 2^500 years, and mentions three chief 
reasons for their being so honored by the Emperor : 
suicide, committed because of attachment to parents 
or husband, or through fear of shame ; living as a 
widow in mourning to the end of life ; filial devotion, 
exhibited by remaining unmarried that she may serve 
her parents, or refusing to marry again after her bus- 
bandy's death, that she may minister to her parents- 
in-law, or the cutting out of a portion of her own 
flesh to be used as a tonic for sick parents or parents- 
in-law. Imperial orders bearing on such cases are 
frequently appearing in the '' Peking Gazette/^ 

If we ask what causes have made those women fa- 
mous or notorious, who have become so through the 
voice of the people, the high authority just quoted 
gives, as the reasons suggested in a large number of 
native works consulted, the following categories : 
filial daughters, devoted sisters, young women who 
had something to say or do in the matter of securing 
a husband, famous courtesans, women skilled in in- 
trigue, renowned empresses, good wives, bad wives, 
good mothers, bad mothers, widows, authoresses, 
artists, artisans, supernatural females, and goddesses. 

While the foreigner will not care to read the rather 
voluminous literature relating to illustrious women, 
he will be aided in his understanding of the people 
by a knowledge of the reasons leading to the exist- 
ence of honorary portals and the slabs mounted on 
the backs of stone tortoises erected in their honor in 
his district. It will also prove interesting to learn 
details about the Empress Wu and the present Em- 
press Dowager, Tzu Hsi (plus fourteen other words 
contained in her recently conferred title). Of the 
many authoresses who are worth knowing, perhaps 
the most influential is Pan Chao, a sister of the Han 
historian. Pan Ku. On her brother^s decease, she 
was appointed state historiographer, and at her death 
was honored by the Emperor with public burial and 
the title of Great Lady Ts'^ao. It was she who wrote, 
soon after the death of St. Paul, '^ the first work in 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST 23 

any language on female education/^ and her ^^ Fe- 
male Precepts ^^ has been the basis of many succeed- 
ing books on that topic. 

Present-day Survivals of China's Past. — 

We must pass on to this topic without naming 
China^s great warriors, like the famous generals of 
the Three Kingdoms, Ts'^ao Ts'^ao, and especially the 
Chinese Mars, Kuan Ti, who reappeared in the heav- 
ens forty-two years ago, a la Castor and Pollux, and 
gave the battle to the Imperial cause, when their an- 
tagonists, the T'^ai P^ing rebels, were fighting under 
the Christianas God. For this signal service the Em- 
peror raised him to the rank of Confucius, and he 
has become the patron deity of the present dynasty. 

1. Some of these survivals exist in material form 
after the lapse of millenniums. Thus, the Great 
Wall, extending across China^s northern frontier, 
existed in some of its detached sections some time 
before Shih Huang-ti, in 214 B.C., ordered it to be 
added to and consolidated into one mass of stone, 
brick and earth, stretching over a distance as great 
as that between Philadelphia, Pa., and Lincoln, IsTeb. 
Counting its sinuosities, its length is nearly or quite 
1,500 miles. The magnitude of this undertaking 
grows upon one, if, like the writer, one walks along 
parallel with it for ten days at an average of thirty 
miles a day, and then remembers that one has seen 
only a fifth of this mountain-scaling rampart of past 
ages. 

The Grand Canal, or Yiln Ho, though no longer 
either grand or a canal scarcely, was in its day one of 
the most useful artificial waterways in the world. 
While the famous Mongol Emperor, Kublai, ordi- 
narily has the credit of excavating it, it existed in 
some of its parts from the Han dynasty, while the 
Sui and T'^ang emperors likewise did much toward 
its extension and improvement. The design was to 
artificially connect lakes and rivers, so that an inland 
passage for junks might extend from Peking to 
Canton. Changes of the course of the Yellow Kiver, 



24 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

one of its great feeders^ the silting up of its bed, 
and the introduction of coasting steamers, account 
for its present dilapidated and partially useless con- 
dition. 

Some of the roads and Iridges of ancient times 
still exist, mostly in North China, though in a sad 
state of repair. The excruciating stone road be- 
tween Peking and its junk-port, T^ung Chou, was 
centuries ago almost equal to the royal roads of the 
Eoman Empire. A more conspicuous work of the 
ancient road-builders is seen in the great highway, 
dating from the third century, a.d., and leading 
from Peking to Ssii-ch^uan, in the remote west. In 
the mountain regions this called for a pathway 
^' which for the difficulties it presents and the art 
and labor with which they have been overcome, 
does not appear to be inferior to the road over the 
Simplon.^^ ^^ At one place on this route, called Li- 
nai, a passage has been cut through the rock, and 
steps hewn on both sides of the mountain from its 
base to the summit. ^^ The narrow roads or paths 
over the passes in Fu-chien and Kuang-tung are less 
ancient, but hardly less useful. Some have claimed 
for China the invention of chain suspension bridges. 
They certainly possessed them from ancient times. 
Archdeacon Gray describes one in Kuei-chou, built 
in A.D. 35. 

Other minor survivals of the past are some bells of 
the Chou dynasty and the famous stone drums of 
Peking, commemorating a royal hunt, 827 B.C. The 
so-called inscription of Yii on a mountain-peak in Hu- 
nan is ancient in spite of the fact that it may have 
been a fabrication of the Han dynasty or of many 
centuries later. Copper cash by the thousand are 
genuine remains of at least a three thousand years^ 
coinage. The writer, when in Mongolia, exchanged 
a Christian booklet costing less than half a cent for 
a coin minted during the reign of King Saul. 

2. Far more numerous than these actual specimens 
of China^s ancient handiwork are institutions and 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST 2$ 

inventions of prL3t ages. While it may be true that a 
large majority of the three hundred and seventy items 
of culture — mentioned by Professor de Lacouperie 
as derived from Anterior Asia and Western India 
during the 2^500 years of China^s early history — may 
have come from those sources, it still remains true 
that China has uninterruptedly possessed those ele- 
ments of civilization during the succeeding centu- 
ries^ though all Asiatic nations, save India, have lost 
most of them and lapsed into semi-barbarism, if in- 
deed they have not become extinct nations. It 
should also be remembered that there is in China 
much civilization that is indigenous. 

Her govermnent — a combination of the patriarchal 
and imperial form — -its codes of laws and scheme of 
civil-service examinations, and China^s system of ter- 
ritorial divisions, have existed for centuries almost 
unchanged, making her people law-abiding and ca- 
pable of progress when other nations were in darkness. 

As one reads the Erh Ya, Eeady Guide, and notes 
the close resemblance of its pictures to objects used 
in the arts and trades of to-day, one can hardly 
believe that it is the oldest philological work extant^ 
claiming to be the work of Duke Chou, 1100 B.C., 
though it was largely added to by a disciple of Con- 
fucius and again in a.d. 280. Some of these ancient 
tools and implements are very ingenious and ser- 
viceable. 

Three of the greatest agencies in the progress of 
the race were used in China long before they became 
known to Europeans. Thus the invention of the 
compass is attributed to Huang Ti, who was said to 
have constructed a chariot for indicating the south 
and used it to direct his way in a fog some 2,600 
years B.C. It is explicitly mentioned in a Chinese 
dictionary of A.D. 121, and seems to have been used 
by mariners more than fifteen centuries ago. Gun- 
powder, according to Grosier, was known at or be- 
fore the Christian era, though it is quite probable 
that it was not employed as an agent of warfare until 



26 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

the twelfth century. Mayers^ on the other hand, 
contends that it reached China from India or Central 
Asia in the fifth century a.d. Full credit may be 
given the Chinese for an invention second only in 
importance in the realm of thought to the formation 
of alphabets^ the art ot printing, Eeproducing cop- 
ies of a writing from an engraved block dates from 
the sixth century, but '' the honor of being the first 
inventor of movable type undoubtedly belongs to a 
Chinese blacksmith named Pi Sheng, who lived about 
A.D. 1000, and printed books with them nearly five 
hundred years before Gutenberg cut his matrices at 
Mainz. ^^ These were porcelain type set in an iron 
frame, and could be reset and used indefinitely. 

Two of China^s principal manufactures should be 
mentioned, as their originality has never been suc- 
cessfully contested, those of silk and porcelain. 
Aristotle to the contrary, Europe undoubtedly ob- 
tained the secret of silk manufacture from China, 
even if it were through the links of Greece and Per- 
sia. From the earliest historic time, sericulture has 
been a highly honored Chinese occupation, with the 
Empress as a living and active patroness. Oi porce- 
lain, James Paton writes : ^'^ It is to the Chinese that 
the world owes the manufacture of porcelain ; and in 
strict chronological sequence, in antiquity of the 
industry, in skill and resource in working raw ma- 
terials, and in richness and variety of the finished 
products the Chinese ought to have the first place. 
When the Greeks were making their terra-cotta vases, 
the Chinese were manufacturing porcelain ; they had 
mastered the secrets of that most difficult of ceramic 
tasks 2,000 years before it was accomplished by Euro- 
peans.^^ 

3. China^s most precious heirlooms from the past 
are her literary treasures. Her spoken language re- 
mains in essentially the same simple monosyllabic form 
of 4,000 years ago. Its marvellous written characters 
put to shame the hieroglyphs of every nation, and serve 
a purpose which nothing else could fill, if a nation is 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST 27 

to have a copious and clearly understood vocabulary- 
expressed by monosyllables. Chinese literature is 
voluminous and ancient in spite of its fiery auto da 
fe 2^100 years ago. Its antiquity ;, however^ only adds 
lustre to its strongly ethical character and its fitness 
for governmental uses to-day, not only in China, but 
in other nations which desire an ethical idealism as 
the basis of law. In a later chapter this topic will be 
dealt with more fully. 

It must not be forgotten that education, which has 
been almost deified in China, and which has made her 
a nation of scholars from before the Christian era, 
has, until this decade, depended almost solely upon a 
literature that antedates that of Rome and nearly all 
of Grecian literature. This is but one item of many 
that might be cited to show that the Chinese Empire 
differs from every other existing nation, India not 
excepted, in the fact that it is dominated to-day by 
the life, the processes, and the ideas of a past which 
is mainly antique. 

Some Secrets of China's Protracted Exist- 
ence. — A review of Chinese history would be incom- 
plete, if no explanation of her unequalled antiquity 
were attempted. The Hittites have left scarcely a 
trace of their former greatness ; Chaldea exists only 
as a name and on clay tablets ; Egypt of the Exo- 
dus remains in brick and mummy and hieratic 
hieroglyphs ; ancient Greece and Eome have left to 
the world only their precious pearl-bearing shells ; 
even Vedic India has fallen from her lofty height to 
the god- and caste-ridden myriads of modern Hin- 
duism. China, on the contrary, is to-day stronger, 
perhaps, than she has ever been after an unbroken 
existence of nearly forty centuries. How account 
for this marvellous anomaly ? 

1. China has always possessed that fundamental 
element of perpetuity, protection from foes without. 
The loftiest mountains in the world, and the broad- 
est ocean swept by armada-destroying typhoons, the 
bulwarks of deserts and barren soil, supplemented by 



28 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

the greatest artificial rampart ever raised by man — 
these have been an ample defence against Ohina^s 
enemies. 

Scarcely less formidable is the barrier of an isolat- 
ing monosyllabic language which has made China a 
sphinx among her Asiatic neighbors. It has at once 
prevented the Chinese from learning from others, and 
has practically forced all who came within her boun- 
daries to forsake their own tongue and learn hers. 

Add to these barriers the hopelessness of attempt- 
ing to overcome such vast masses oflmmaiiity as are 
contained within the Empire, and one can readily see 
that the task could not be successfully undertaken by 
the sparsely settled regions surrounding China on all 
sides save on the populous Indian quarter against 
which God thrust upward for miles into the sky His 
snow-capped towers and insurmountable battlements. 

2. Some national cliaracteristics have doubtless 
tended to China's perpetuity. Ignorance of anything 
better beyond her confines would make her satisfied 
with her own rich endowment. Physical strength, 
hostile to decay, which the Chinese, dwelling in the 
temperate zone, have enjoyed to a remarkable degree, 
partly accounts for her survival. Industry, neces- 
sitated by physical environment and competition, has 
left little leisure for discontent and organized plotting 
against the powers that be. A contented perseverance 
in the midst of difficulties makes the Chinese abide 
in their callings as few nations care to do. Love of 
home keeps the population from coveting and striving 
for the possessions of those more remote, whether 
within the Empire or outside its borders. To a peo- 
ple possessed of a notoriously phlegmatic temperament 
and of a conservatism amounting to almost uncon- 
querable inertia, the above characteristics would 
prove both a centripetal and a conserving force of 
great strength. 

3. The internal resources of the Empire in point 
of natural wealth, fairly easy intercommunication, 
salubrious climate, and facilities for the cultivation of 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST 29 

the mind, have, until recent centuries, been such that 
no inducement has offered to emigrate, nor has any 
desire been felt to allow to come within the Empire 
outside barbarians who might disturb this desirable 
prosperity and tranquillity. 

4. Unlike most extinct nations, China has contained 
within herself safeguards against internal conflict 
and decay. Eebellions and revolutions, which have 
wiped out other peoples, have affected China but lit- 
tle, since her sages have taught that when a dynasty 
so far forgets itself as to disregard the desires of 
Heaven, Heaven will smile upon their armed protest 
and appoint a new vicegerent who will rule right- 
eously. Hence rebellion quickly accomplishes its ob- 
ject, and peace reigns again. Ambition for martial 
renown has struck the death-blow of many a nation ; 
but in China her crowned kings are her canny men, 
and ambition finds its highest rewards in the con- 
quests of knowledge and the triumph of academic 
victory. 

Against tendencies to decay are pitted some of the 
items already named in paragraph numbered 3, and a 
temperance which has been phenomenal until this 
century of grace has forced upon an unwilling peo- 
ple the destructive appetite for opium. A system of 
ethics, second only to the Christian system, has been 
taught in every school-room for 2,000 years, and in 
its important society-preserving elements has been 
insisted upon by local officials for an even longer 
period. Filial piety, which so many historians and 
preachers of the arm-chair type have considered to be 
the secret of China's long existence, may have failed 
in many respects, but it has been the means of en- 
grafting on the nation a sense of obedience and sub- 
ordination that has checked revolt and anarchy. 
Hoary old age, before which even the mighty Em- 
peror K^ang Hsi stood in reverence, is an influential 
Chinese Ecclesiastes, which cries out to libertmes and 
spendthrifts, ^^ Vanity of vanities."^ High officials 
do not encourage a desire for luxury, since they serve 



30 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

for a limited time in a given place, and that away 
from their own home, so that there is little induce- 
ment to live luxuriously. Private wealth must hide 
itself, lest it arouse the cupidity of official underlings, 
and the almost universal nearness of want makes lux- 
urious decay impossible. 

5. Government and laws are often responsible for a 
nation^s perpetuity or destruction. China^s code is 
remarkable in many respects and its paternal theory 
makes it popular. Officials are civic fathers and 
mothers, while the Emperor, Son of Heaven, prays 
and sacrifices to the heavenly powers when his chil- 
dren suffer from great calamity. That this govern- 
ment should have long survived is quite natural ; for 
it supports by its strong sanction the authority of 
rulers on the one hand, while on the other it authorizes 
resistance to glaring evil in high places. Moreover, 
all official positions in the Empire save the Imperial 
ones are open to any man in the land — except certain 
wisely debarred persons — provided he has the requis- 
ite ability. As every family has in its membership 
some noted official, Chinese clan-spirit supports the 
system. 

The laws are, in the main, very equitable, and in 
the villages, where the majority of Chinese dwell, 
they are largely in the hands of village elders, who 
dispense them as befits so nearly a republican form of 
administration. The corruption found in city courts 
of justice also tends to obedience to law ; since law- 
suits mean bribery, torture and loss, even if the case 
is won. 

6. To the Christian who sees the purposes of God 
in history. His hand is beneath the Chinese throne 
and this wonderful Empire has been continued 
through the ages to accomplish His will. That a 
nation of such marked strength has existed for 4,000 
years is an indication of its future survival, and we 
may be sure that God has reserved it for some gra- 
cious and world-influencing purpose. It is, then, the 
privilege and duty of every child of God to co-operate 



CHINA'S INHERITANCE FROM THE PAST 3I 

with Him in helping Sinim to know its Maker and 
to accomplish His great designs. 

The Dawn of a New Era. — For the reasons 
above given^ China^s great age has benefited few be- 
yond her own subjects. Seated on a throne of selfish 
isolation she has ruled ^^ all within the four seas/^ 
and cared nothing for the nations without. 

But to-day conditions have radically changed. 
China^s open ports are filled with the merchantmen of 
the world. Eailroads are beginning to be built ; tele- 
graphs extend to most of her provincial capitals ; her 
mineral wealth is coveted by the nations^ and has 
, become an object of importance to her own prosperity. 
Contemporaneously with the removal of ignorant 
prejudice against foreigners, and the emergence of 
her new importance to the world, has come the rude 
awakening caused by the imperious knocking at her 
doors of the great European Powers. Port Arthur, 
Wei-hai-wei, Kiao-chou Bay, tjie Yang-tzu valley, 
the territory bordering on the possessions of France, 
have been invaded and isolation is at an end. Even 
anti-foreign Hu-nan has an open port, and mission- 
aries preach within her territory. China^s garnished 
house has been swept clean from effective opposition 
and prejudice. But who is to enter in through her 
open gates — the Church of God with her ministra- 
tion of mercy and salvation ? or Western avarice and 
land-hunger, occidental vices and materialism ? The 
latter forces are entering ; shall not Christianity enter 
with equal stride as a conserving factor in this period 
of national transformation ? 



Ill 

'^THE REAL CHIN"AMAK ^' 

OiiTE who would understand the Chinese and the 
work which the Church and Western civilization are 
called upon to do for them, must carefully consider 
Chinese character and the social and industrial en- 
vironment found in the Empire. So important is 
the moral and religious life of the Chinese, that it 
will form the topic of a separate chapter. 

Numbers and Distribution. — A reference to the 
statistics given under the provinces in Appendix A 
will reveal these facts in detail. According to ^^ The 
Statesman's Year Book, 1898/' the total population 
of the Eighteen Provinces is 383,253,029. China 
is, therefore, the most populous nation of the world, 
containing as it does more than five times the popula- 
tion of the United States, and fully one-fourth of the 
inhabitants of the globe. Other authorities vary from 
300,000,000 and even less to over 400,000,000. The 
census of 1812, regarded by authorities as the most 
trustworthv of Chinese enumerations, gives a popu- 
lation of 362,447,183. 

Reasons for such wide differences of opinion are 
found in the facts that the m^n paH, or registration 
tablets, supposed to be found on every householder's 
door, may be altered according as the registration is 
for the object of securing persons for public service 
or for purposes of taxation ; or, on the other hand, 
for learning how many ^^ mouths "may need to be 
fed at public expense in time of famine., Moreover, 
as a yearly record of population is required by the 
government, many officials doubtless save themselves 
trouble by adding or subtracting a certain percentage 
32 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN'' 33 

on the basis of the previous reports. In one case tes- 
tified to by Dr. Dudgeon^ of Peking, a foreign minis- 
ter received from the proper board a total population 
which had been deliberately reduced by one-third, 
because ^^the officials sought to check missionary 
zeal by this considerable reduction of the population. 
In the following year, as no abatement of missionary 
immigration seemed to follow, the [subtracted] fig- 
ures were again added to the records.''^ 

A glance at the accompanying map will show where 
the population is densest, and where most sparse. 
The coast provinces and a belt across the centre of the 
Empire along the Yang-tzu are the populous sections, 
while in the northwest and southwest are the sparsely 
inhabited regions. 

Characteristics of the Chinese. — A Chinese 
proverb to the effect that the summer insect will not 
speak of ice, nor a frog in a well discourse on the 
heavens, is forgotten by many writers who study the 
Chinese in our laundries, or in Chinese ports, where 
contact with the vices of a Western civilization let 
loose for a lustful holiday has had a baneful effect on 
a much tempted and abused people. Merchants who 
live in the treaty ports, travellers along the coast with 
no knowledge of the language, and the average 
steamer captain with the vicious life of the port 
from which to gain his data concerning the Chinese 
and missionary effort, are not to be wholly trusted as 
witnesses concerning the natives and missions among 
them. 

As foreign customs-officials have mainly to do with 
the seamy side of Ah Sin^s nature, and as diplomatic 
representatives of the Occident consort largely with 
the official classes, the missionary has thus far come 
into closest contact' with the typical Chinese, and 
hence is best fitted to pronounce on their character. 

1. While the races of China Proper are remarkably 
homogeneous, the Miao-tzu excepted, they differ 
physically so much as to deserve separate mention. 

The Tiietans are found only in small numbers on 



34 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

the western border. ^^They are short, squat, and 
broad-shouldered in body, with angular faces, wide, 
high cheek-bones, small black eyes, and scant beard/^ 
Physically they are a cross between the Mongols and 
the Hindus. 

The Mongols, ^.6., Brave, are quite abundant along 
the northern frontier, especially north of the Great 
Wall. They are essentially nomadic and pastoral ex- 
cept inside the AVall, where they are found transport- 
ing goods on their camel-trains or engaged in trading. 
They are generally '^a stout, squat, swarthy, ill- 
favored race of men, having high and broad shoul- 
ders, short, broad noses, pointed and prominent chins, 
long teeth distant from each other, eyes black, ellip- 
tical, and unsteady, thick, short legs, with a stature 
nearly or quite equal to the European/^ 

Scattered through the southern and southwestern 
provinces are many large communities of Miao-tzu, 
or aboriginal tribes, differentiated by the adjectives 
^^ Savage ^^ and ^^Subdued.^^ ^^They are rather 
smaller in size and stature, have shorter necks, and 
their features are somewhat more angular. . . . 
An examination of their languages shows that those 
of the Miao-tzu proper have strong affinities with the 
Siamese and Annamese, and those known as Lolo ex- 
hibit a decided likeness to the Burmese.''^ 

The present rulers of China, the Manclius, i. 6., Pure, 
though perhaps derived from the same stock as the 
Mongols, are hunters and agriculturists in Manchuria, 
and in China are distributed in various parts of the 
Empire, often in garrisons, as supporters of the reign- 
ing dynasty. They ^^ are of a lighter complexion and 
somewhat larger than the Chinese, have the same 
conformation of the eyelids, but rather more beard, 
while their countenances indicate greater intellectual 
capacity. . . . They have fair, if not florid, com- 
plexions, straight noses and, in a few cases, brown hair 
and heavy beards.'^ Dr. Williams regards them as 
^^ the most improvable race in Central Asia, if not on 
the continent, ^^ 



*'THE REAL CHINAMAN'' 35 

^^The physical traits of the Chinese may be de- 
scribed as being between the light and agile Hindu, 
and the muscular, fleshy European. Their form is 
well-built and symmetrical ; their color is a brunette 
or sickly white . . . ; in the south they are 
swarthy but not black. . . . The hair of the 
head is lank, black, coarse, and glossy ; beard always 
black, thin and deficient ; scanty or no whiskers ; and 
very little hair on the body. Eyes invariably black 
and apparently oblique. . . . The cheek-bones 
are high and the outline of the faoe remarkably round. 
The nose is rather small. . . . Lips thicker than 
among Europeans. . . . The height of those 
living north of tlie Yang-tzu is about the same as that 
of Europeans. ^^ In physical endurance the Chinese 
rank very high, and can undergo extreme hardship 
in the frigid or torrid zone better than almost any 
other nationality. This is the race that constitutes 
almost the entire population of China Proper, the 
other races being comparatively few in number. 

2. In what some ethnologists call emotional charac- 
ters^ the Chinese rank almost as high as in their phys- 
ical excellencies. They are remarkably industrious 
when there is sufficient motive, and were it not for 
the opium vice, recently contracted, they would rank 
high among the nations of the world for temperance, 
a trait largely fostered by their use of tea. Early 
and almost universal marriage prevents outward in- 
dications of sensuality, though in the ports one sees 
abundant evidence of it, as also in the catamites of 
the inns, and in the Adonises kept by many officials 
and men of wealth. The swarm of eunuchs in the 
palace and the Emperor^s extensive harem are hap- 
pily not duplicated elsewhere, and polygamy does 
not extensively prevail. The abnormal develop- 
ment of the vocabulary of obscenity is a sure index 
of depraved imaginations, though its common use 
may be as thoughtless as the oaths of habitual swear- 
ers among us. Except within clan and family lines, 
the Chinese are not a very sociable people, nor does 



36 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

their idea of the privacy of home life permit of 
much hospitality outside of those who may legiti- 
mately be received as guests. Though naturally peace- 
able, quarrels are extremely common and the voca- 
tion of peacemaker is an awkward necessity. Among 
women quarrelsomeness frequently results in a rage 
which so excites the individual that it brings one- 
half the cases among women patients to many mis- 
sion dispensaries ; while not infrequently do men as 
well as women ch'i ssu Uao, i.e., die of anger, as they 
say. Bravery is not so characteristic of the Chinese 
as of Mongols and Manchus ; yet in war, if they have 
confidence in their leaders, they Avell deserve the 
name worn on their breasts. Brave. Politeness and 
ceremonial are most prominent features in Chinese 
intercourse, so that some have called the educated 
classes the most dignified and polite people of the 
world, the French and Japanese not excepted. 
Indeed, life is little else than ceremonial and polite- 
ness for those in high station, and among the lower 
classes it prevails on the required days and in certain 
relations of society. Filial piety may be only exter- 
nal, but it is omnipresent on state occasions and is a 
dominating factor in Chinese life. Conservatism is a 
most noticeable trait of their character ; yet it has, on 
the whole, been of advantage, since almost invariably 
it has resulted in their conserving that which is best 
for the nation, as they regard it. 

3. Intellectually the Chinese rank high among the 
races. In cranial capacity the ideal Mongolic type 
falls short of the ideal Caucasic by only 100 cubic 
centimetres, being from 1,200 to 1,300. It is thus 
considerably above the average racial skull capacity. 

While in the opinion of some writers, the present 
simple and nearly primitive form of the language is 
an argument against their intellectual power, it 
should be remembered that the strongest reason, per- 
haps, for such an arrested development lies in their 
possession, at a very early period, of a large body of 
worthy literature, the wide use of which has satisfied 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN'* 37 

them. Moreover, no nation using hieroglyphs, not 
even Egypt, has begun to elaborate such a form of 
writing to the extent and with the ingenuity of the 
Chinese, as witness the almost 45,000 characters in 
the Imperial Dictionary of K^ang Hsi. The mere 
arrangement in a dictionary of such a mass of ideo- 
graphs, so that thej^ can readily be found, though 
there is no alphabet to arrange them under, is a 
triumph of genius. So, too, are the introduction 
of tones, the use of numeratives, the collocation of 
synonyms and the use of enclitics to prevent the 
ambiguity which necessarily arises in a monosyllabic 
tongue, with its extremely limited number of words — 
only 420 different syllables or words are used in Peking- 
ese. Fancy our utter bewilderment if our thoughts 
needed to be expressed through the medium of 420 
syllables representing 45,000 words, many of which 
are pronounced the same, but written differently, as 
rite, right, wright, write, for example. It would be 
impossible for us through an alphabet to accomplish 
what the Chinese have, when every one of the 105 
characters — which on an average have the same 
sound, though not the same tone — possesses a form 
as perfectly distinct as the four English words in the 
illustration above. It is safe to say that no nation 
could have more satisfactorily solved the problem of 
homophony in a monosyllabic tongue than has China. 
A no less certain indication of their intellectual 
power is the supreme place and honor given to 
education. If it be granted that the subjects on 
which they are examined for degrees are antiquated 
and that the memory rather than the logical powers 
have received cultivation, this does not prove that 
they are lacking in intellectuality, but indicates 
rather an error in method. A piece of personal testi- 
mony may here be in place. The writer taught for 
two years in one of our best preparatory schools, 
Phillips Academy, Andover, and compared carefully 
nearly a dozen picked Chinese students, sent to Amer- 
ica by the Educational Commission, with students 



38 DAWN- ON- THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

from our best American families. The Chinese sur- 
passed in diligence our own young men^ but seem- 
ingly failed because of their lack of logical power. 
As a result, the Faculty regarded them as somewhat 
inferior to our students. Later the writer was con- 
nected with what is now the North China College, 
near Peking. The students there were of about the 
same age, but from ordinary Chinese families ; yet 
being taught through a perfectly understood medium, 
their native tongue, and by missionaries who appre- 
ciated fully the intellectual weaknesses of their pupils, 
they far outstripped the ordinary American student. 
There were two men out of eleven in the last class 
with which he had to do, who would have ranked 
higher as students, if they had had like access to 
Western literature, than anyone in his own class of 
more than 130 members at Yale. It is quite gener- 
ally admitted that with a right method of instruction 
and an enlarged access to the literature of the West, 
the Chinese w^ill be close rivals with the New Japan 
and with Germany for the first place in the scholar- 
ship of the twentieth century. Heredity — for every 
Chinese family contains noted scholars within a 
generation or two — a genius for patient, scholarly 
plodding and a memory which retains, almost without 
effort, practically all the data it has ever learned, 
may make up in this rivalry for the present lack of 
imagination, so essential for working hypotheses, and 
of ingenuity, equally necessary in an age when so 
much is learned in laboratories. 

When asked for the product of Chinese mind, only 
a meagre report can be given in the realm of science, 
though, as already shown, China antedates the Occi- 
dent in some important inventions and arts. Arith- 
metic was taught from a very early period and one 
T^ang dynasty arithmetician offered a reward of a 
thousand taels of silver to anyone who could dis- 
cover an error in his work on solid mensuration. 
Hindu algebra was early known and Chinese scholars 
have willingly learned the higher mathematics from 



" THE RE A L CHINA MAN" 39 

Europeans^ since they ascribe our advance in the 
exact sciences to them. Astronomy has always been 
a favorite study also, though beyond the observation 
and recording of eclipses and other celestial phenom- 
ena and the regulation of the calendar, they have 
known little until taught by the Occident. As 
already seen, they have been lamentably ignorant of 
geography, and in medicine they have held equally 
incorrect and ludicrous ideas, though it should be 
added that they have made some good use of herbs. 
Dr. Martin has tried to show that the Chinese have 
anticipated some important modern discoveries, such 
as biological evolution, unity of matter and motion, 
conservation of energy, and the existence and prop- 
erties of elemental ether. Yet it must be said that 
any such allusions and discussions are not very clear. 

In the arts the Chinese have done little of solid 
worth. Drawing and painting are conventional and 
are weak in perspective. Music is deficient in its 
theory and ear-torturing in execution, especially 
when produced by an orchestra or by shrill falsetto 
singers. One rather admires Chinese architecture, 
with its gracefully curved roofs, modelled perhaps 
after the sloping sides of their ancestral tents, and 
the towering pagoda, so characteristic of Chinese 
scenery. Landscape gardening in a few instances 
reaches the point of absolute genius, especially when 
limited space is made to appear ample by the plant- 
ing of dark-foliaged tall trees in the foreground and 
smaller and lighter foliaged ones toward the back- 
ground. In other ways also the landscape gardener 
produces living effects, much as our best scene paint- 
ers do it artificially. 

Sociological Environment of the Chinese. — 
Differences in various parts of the Empire make it 
impossible to give a faithful picture of this environ- 
ment ; yet some general ideas may be of value. 

1. The home and clan life is scarcely known by 
any other foreigners than the missionaries. Like 
that in India, this life is spent by the majority in 



40 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T 'ANG 

villages and not in the 1,700 walled cities of the 
Empire, nor in isolated houses, as in Western coun- 
try villages. In some cases not a person lives in this 
village who does not belong to a given clan, and in 
other villages it is quite common for the oldest sur- 
viving head of a family to have in the same court- 
yard with himself, his sons and grandchildren, his 
daughters having been obliged to marry into a family 
of a different surname and so living elsewhere. The 
power granted by law and custom to these family or 
clan heads makes village life in China quite patri- 
archal. 

A village is a collection of low, one-story adobe, 
wooden, or brick houses closely adjoining, sur- 
rounded, it may be, with an adobe or mud wall for 
defence against brigands, and overshadowed by trees. 
Centrally located is the village well, and often near by 
is seen the little temple, with its shabby array of 
local deities. Unless large, there is scarcely a shop 
to be found, as frequently recurring fairs at a larger 
adjacent town supply the simple outside wants of the 
villagers. From their homes issue at an early hour 
the men and boys en route for the fields, where man- 
power rather than that of beast is mainly employed. 
Thence they return to get the first meal of the day at 
eleven o^clock, after which they again go to work, not 
coming back until six or seven for supper. The 
women meanwhile, if they have not gone to the fields, 
have been busy with their children and with cooking, 
spinning, weaving, caring for the family wardrobe, 
and gossiping or quarrelling. And so the life goes 
on, without any knowledge of a Sabbath, and allevi- 
ated by only a few holidays, chief among which is the 
New Year. 

As to food, rice and vegetables are the staff of life in 
the central and southern parts of the Empire, while 
in the north, wheat flour or millet takes the place 
of rice. Chinese cookery is ingenious in its ability 
to give flavor to the tasteless rice or boiled wheat 
flour by a multitude of inexpensive relishes. Pork 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN** 41 

and chickens are occasionally eaten, beef is not often 
so used, save in the north, while dog-meat, rats, and 
cats are indulged in much as horse-flesh is in Paris. 
So poor are many of the people that food is eaten by 
weight, so many ounces for each person, a practice 
alluded to in Scripture as a symbol of famine. To 
have all that one desires to eat and a correspondingly 
ample figure, are, according to Chinese ideas, infalli- 
ble proofs of great happiness. 

The sumptuary laws of the Empire are most 
minute and rigid ; yet, as Hallam has testified con- 
cerning Europe, it has not been easy to enforce them 
in China. In village life they mainly aflEect clothing, 
though the walking-stick regulation is also com- 
monly regarded. Missionaries often offend unwit- 
tingly by carrying canes in middle life, or even in 
youth, and by constructing houses contrary to their 
sumptuary laws, a proceeding far more harmful in 
villages than in cities. Blue cotton cloth is the 
commonest material for ilie clothing of both men 
and women. In the winter this may be wadded or 
lined with sheep-skin. A species of shirt and coat, 
drawers and trousers, stockings and shoes are not 
very different for the two sexes, though a gentleman 
would never appear in public without a long gown 
reaching to the ankles. His garments, moreover, 
would be of silk or broadcloth, of blue, lavender, 
plum-color, or gray. Caps are commonly worn by 
men in the winter and doffed in the summer, unless 
replaced by a broad-brimmed hat. Ladies are per- 
mitted to wear gowns, instead of trousers merely, 
and they often dress quite elaborately. Were it not 
for their highly rouged faces and goat-like bound 
feet, some of them would look very handsome. 

The great events in family life are, as with us, births, 
marriages, and deaths. If the infant is a girl, her 
coming is not welcomed and she is often quietly de- 
spatched, not so much through heartlessness as because 
the family is too poor to support her until marriage- 
able, and unwilling to sell her to be a domestic slave 



43 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

or for a life of shame. A boy^s advent is a source of 
great gladness, as in him are the sinews of family 
strength and of service to parental post-mortem 
necessities. Marriages do not follow betrothal at 
the early age common in India, yet girls often be- 
come mothers at too early a period for their off- 
springes physical good. The ceremonies are natu- 
rally joyful to a company who usually pay a good 
fee and expect to get their money back through 
feasting. As for the bride, this ceremony ushers her 
into a life made bitter by bondage to a notoriously 
stern and capricious mother - in - law. Thousands 
commit suicide either just before marriage or after a 
few days of service under such a vixen. Death and 
its subsequent funeral are, par excellence, the events 
of Chinese experience. A wedding is a quiet per- 
formance in comparison. For days — forty-nine, if 
the family can afford it — priestly bowlings, music 
from a pandemoniac band, feasting and revelry 
reign, and then comes the funeral jDrocession with 
its many bearers and beggars, its mourners clothed 
in white sackcloth, and the demon-appeasing cere- 
monies. This experience plunges a family in debt, 
often for years, but through fear of the now power- 
ful spirit, no one dares spare in this crisis of filial 
piety. 

2. In the cities the environment varies somewhat 
from the above. A high, often crenellated wall 
pierced by great gates, which are surmounted by 
watch-towers or defended by a semicircular enceinte, 
shuts out from the traveller's view everything except 
a few flag-poles marking temples and official ya-mens. 
Mounting this wall one sees great expanses of tile- 
covered roofs, threaded by narrow streets and shaded 
by many trees or summer mattings. As one goes 
through the main streets, bustle and industry are 
everywhere apparent. Itinerant vendors of various 
commodities frequent the side-streets, and shout out 
the articles sold or indicate them by a variety of 
instruments of percussion, so that modest women may 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN'' 43 

come to their gates and buy. At night the manifold 
noises of day fade out into the stridulous quarrelling 
of women and the voice of the peacemaker^ and soon 
after nine o^clock silence reigns^ save for the barking 
of dogs, the shouts of private watchmen, the rattles 
and gongs of the police, and the monotonous cry of 
the cake-seller as he visits the opium dens of a sleep- 
ing city. 

City homes are usually of brick or adobe, and con- 
tain within a single large court a number of build- 
ings divided up into family rooms. There is thus a 
one-story tenement-life problem there, unless the 
court is occupied by a large family or part of a clan. 
Some of these abodes are luxurious, but the majority 
have only beds or brick platforms for sleeping, a few 
chairs or tables, one clock perhaps, or several if they 
can be afforded, some wall scrolls, red boxes contain- 
ing clothing, a few vessels for cooking, and recep- 
tacles for flour, rice, etc. 

The city is likewise the habitat of two numerous 
classes of social parasites. The leggars are often an 
organized fraternity, working according to fixed rules 
under a beggar king. Howling most lugubriously 
in stores or private hall-ways, or following one on 
the street, they cannot well be disposed of until the 
usual dole is given ; and woe betide the person who 
mortally offends one of them, for he can wreak dire 
vengeance on his enemy by committing suicide or 
seriously injuring himself at the offender's gate. 
The thief is a terror to the unarmed citizen, and as the 
police and watchmen announce their whereabouts by 
much noise, he is rarely captured, and so proceeds to 
dig through walls and terrorize a street by raids, 
often repeated many nights in succession. XJnfortu- 
nately for them, when serious crime of any sort can- 
not be ferreted out and a victim to the majesty of the 
law is needed, the head thief-catcher usually selects 
his victim from their ranks. 

Blind beggars, lepers in the south, and cripples of 
every degree, also abound in the cities, though they 



44 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

can hardly be classed as social parasites. For these 
and other unfortunates, asyUtms are established in 
many populous centres. AVhile foundling institutions 
in their best estate somewhat resemble ours, their other 
asylums are mainly shelters from which the inmates 
go forth by day, sometimes in bands, to beg a pre- 
carious living. The financial support of such places 
depends largely upon persons who thereby lay up 
merit for themselves, or who expect through their 
charity to receive an honorary title or literary degree, 
and upon levies paid by the salt - merchants. No 
native asylum for lunatics exists ; if violent, they are 
kept manacled in inner rooms at home, or left lying 
by the highway, bound hand and foot. The harm- 
lessly insane, whether men or women, are allowed to 
roam abroad, sometimes in a nude condition. Gov- 
ernment aid is often furnished to the poor in times 
of famine, or when rebellion drives villagers into 
cities, as lawlessness is thus diminished. It also 
aids many aged persons to earn a livelihood by grant- 
ing them the right to vend salt without a license, 
thus underselling the holders of the government 
salt monopoly. Charity also takes the supposedly 
very meritorious form of furnishing coffins for dead 
paupers. 

3. The government and laws of China are, in the 
main, well calculated to secure peace and the ends of 
justice; this, however, is true theoretically rather 
than in fact. The Emperor, who is the Son of Heaven 
and father of his subjects, daily meets his Grand 
Cabinet between four and six a.m. Business is passed 
down by this Cabinet to the boards of Civil Office, 
Eevenue, Ceremonies (including religion). War, 
Punishment, Works, Admiralty, and Foreign Affairs, 
or Tsang-li Ya-men. Thence so much of it as is 
necessary proceeds through a perfect network of 
greater and lesser officials to the provinces, districts, 
and hamlets of the Empire. Theoretically regarded, 
the government is an absolute monarchy; yet because 
of the universal knowledge of the principles of gov- 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN'* 45 

erning contained in Confucian literature, the influ- 
ence of the literati, and the alertness of the Censors, 
this power is greatly limited. 

Administrators of Imo, except in small villages — 
and often there also — are graduates who have passed 
the civil-service examinations, and so constitute an 
aristocracy of learning. Special fitness to rule is not 
considered. Office is rather the goal toward which, 
from the day that the boy began to 7iien sliu tso hiian 
— study books to become an official — he has for long 
years been struggling through first, second, and most 
likely third degree examinations, with their grada- 
tions of buttons and much coveted honors. This 
ordeal passed, he finds himself in office with a small 
salary, many hungry subordinates, and prevalent cor- 
ruption through which to pay expenses and become 
wealthy. What wonder that, backed by a host of 
underlings, known as his " claws,^^ taxes speedily 
increase, the court, in which he is judge and jury, 
becomes the scene of bribery and torture, and the 
^^hell^^ — prison — to which he sentences obdurate or 
poverty-stricken litigants loosens its grasp only to 
surrender its victims to the grave. The Chinese soon 
learn the moral : Avoid lawsuits, submit to petty 
extortion without a murmur, be a man of peace, and 
as for vengeance, trust to the proverb, '' One life as 
an official [is sufficient to condemn to] seven lives of 
beggary [in the future world]. ^^ 

Industrial Life of the Empire. — 1. While caste 
is unknown in China, there are gradations in soci- 
ety. A native writer has thus described these gra- 
dations : '^ First the scholar: because mind is supe- 
rior to wealth, and it is the intellect that distin- 
guishes man above the lower orders of beings, and 
enables him to provide food and raiment and shelter 
for himself and for other creatures. Second, the 
farmer : because the mind cannot act without the 
body, and the body cannot exist without food ; so 
that farming is essential to the existence of man, 
especially in civilized society. Third, the mechanic : 



46 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

because, next to food, shelter is a necessity, and the 
man who builds a house comes next in honor to the 
man who provides food. Fourth, the tradesman : 
because, as society increases and its wants are multi- 
plied, men to carry on exchange and barter become a 
necessity, and so the merchant comes into existence. 
His occupation — shaving both sides, the producer 
and consumer — tempts him to act dishonestly ; hence 
his low grade. Fifth, the soldier stands last and 
lowest in the list, because his business is to destroy 
and not to build up society. He consumes what 
others produce, but produces nothing himself that 
can benefit mankind. He is, perhaps, a necessary 
evil.^^ 

In addition to the above gradations, one should 
remember that the descendants of Confucius con- 
stitute a species of nobility, and that the Manchus of 
rank, especially members of the Imperial clan, are 
also held in honor. Neither of the above classes, 
nor, much less, the priesthoods of the prevailing 
religions, attempt to hold the people in subjugation; 
hence the Chinese possess a freedom that is remark- 
able. 

2. The industries of the Empire are carried on with 
a good assortment of tools, but with few machines. 
This means that manual labor is everywhere pre- 
dominant, though in agriculture and transportation, 
beasts are often used, animals of different sorts, or 
animals and men or women, sometimes uniting their 
forces to draw ploughs or vehicles. In mining, shafts 
were sunk only to slight depths until recently, partly 
because it was thought that it would incense the 
dragon and disturb the terrestrial influences. That 
modern mining methods introduced by foreigners do 
not bring disaster, is a severe blow that is helping 
to destroy superstition. 

Wages are naturally low and competition severe. 
From six to ten cents will hire an ordinary laborer 
for a day, while artisans can be had for from twelve 
to twenty-five cents. As nearly every adult is mar- 



'THE REAL CHINAMAN'* 47 



ried and has children^ economy of the strictest sort 
must be practised^ and Western machines and means 
of transportation are sorely dreaded in consequence. 
The ''^dried-meat money ^^ of a graduate teacher — 
one must not speak of salary to such a personage — is 
$100, more or less, per annum. 

3. Trade guilds and unions are more pervasive 
than in the Occident, extending even to beggars and 
thieves. Anyone caught stealing who does not 
belong to the guild is doubly punished ; and no 
member would think of entering a house that had 
been insured by the union against larceny for a suita- 
ble premium. Non-unionists in any trade are often 
suppressed by the bamboo, while the guild cares for 
its own members in life and death, often against the 
strong though ineffective opposition of magistrates. 
Yet with such combinations of labor and with over- 
crowded ^^ multitudes ever on the brink of destitution, 
China has no lapsed masses in her teeming cities, nor 
agrarian outrages in her country districts/^ 

Amusements and Festivals. — 1. '^ Climbing a 
tree to hunt for fish ^^ describes the attempt to dis- 
cuss the amnsements of many Chinese whose life is 
^^all work and no play.^^ Still, even the busiest 
John occasionally unbends, especially in winter. 
Children play at hop-scotch, kick marbles about, 
spin a sort of humming spool in the air and use a 
thousand and one different games and toys. Women 
amuse themselves by playing cards and dominoes, 
gossiping, and visiting. Kite-flying, a species of bat- 
tledore and shuttlecock, the feet being the battledore, 
acrobatic performances and juggling, cricket and 
quail-fights, and two forms of chess afford men their 
chief amusements. The whole community is fond of 
theatrical exhibitions, drawn out for three days and 
nights sometimes, Punch-and-Judy shows, and gam- 
bling in multitudinous forms. Feasts are restricted to 
men, and the itinerant story-teller rarely has others in 
his booth. Athletic sports are regarded as a doubt- 
ful and difficult way of amusing one^s self, though can- 



4S DAJVN OiV THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

didates for military degrees are often very well 
trained. 

2. Entire absence of a hebdomadal division of time 
with its regularly recurring Sabbath of rest, has its 
partial compensation in the many festivals of the 
Chinese, only the most prominent of which can be 
mentioned. New Year is the holiday of the Empire 
and the universal birthday, when everyone adds a 
year to his age. In preparation for it accounts have 
been squared, houses cleaned, new clothes bought or 
hired for the day, and doors adorned with mottoes of 
happy omen, giving the town the appearance of being 
painted red. On the day itself carts or chairs rush 
through the narrow streets carrying well-dressed men 
intent on ^^worshipping the year ^^ through calls of 
ceremony, and for once the sounds of trade and busi- 
ness are utterly hushed. Next in importance is the 
chHng ming, or festival of tombs, falling usually in 
April. Ancestral graves are put in order by the 
family, who go in pilgrimage thither to offer food, 
money, and servants, made of paper, to the shades of 
the deceased. White streamers flutter from the 
tumuli and burning incense envelops the landscape 
with a filmy haze. The dragon boat festival, on the 
fifth day of the fifth moon, is the boatmen^s holiday, 
when amid the beating of drums and gongs gayly 
decked boats are rowed up and down the rivers and 
their occupants indulge in racing, while the crowds 
along shore cheer and reward the victorious crews. 
The seventh moon witnesses the feast of '^All Souls," 
when clothes, food, and drink are offered to hungry 
ghosts, who have no male descendants to minister to 
their needs, and also a festival in honor of the Sevefi 
Sisters, or Pleiades, the patron saints of women. 
The fifteenth of the eighth month is sacred to the 
moon, and on that night all China is ablaze with 
every conceivable variety of lantern, moon-cakes are 
exchanged between families, and everywhere are fire- 
crackers and candles galore. The ninth of the ninth 
moon concludes the hite-flying feast. While during 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN** 49 

the days preceding the sky has been flecked with 
clouds of tailless kites provided with ^olian-harp 
strings and the children have looked upon it as sport 
merely, graybeards have been doing their best to so 
manipulate their kites as to cut the string and cause 
all the family ill luck to soar away with the kite. 

The Chinese as Painted by Themselves. — 
Their proverbs furnish the most trustworthy portrait 
of the Chinese, as in the Orient such sayings are 
regarded as axiomatic statements of indisputable 
truth. In selecting these, we have not ^^in painting 
a snake added legs/^ f e., exaggerated traits of com- 
mon life ; we have simply *^^ allowed the sick man to 
furnish his own perspiration.'^ 

1. Cliildren, The value of boys vs, that of girls is 
expressed by the proverb, ^^ Eighteen Lohan [goddess- 
like] daughters are not equal to a boy with a crooked 
foot."'^ Once born, struggle is demanded from 
parents, as ^^ A child but a foot long requires three 
feet of cloth ^^ for its earth-trousers. Yet they 
gladly endure their added cares; for ^'^ What fastens 
to the heart-strings and pulls on the liver are oner's 
sons and daughters.''^ As children advance in years, 
remember the saying, '^ If you love your son, give 
him plenty of the cudgel ; if you hate him, cram him 
with dainties. ^^ Unluckily this discipline is spasmod- 
ic as shown by the definition, ^' Cloudy day — leisure 
to beat the children.''^ Discipline persevered in, how- 
ever, has its reward ; ^^ As the twig is bent, the mul- 
berry tree grows.^^ 

2. Looking out into life. The parent planning 
for the boy^s future sees two possibilities, learning 
and manual labor. In favor of the scholar^s life, he 
recalls the maxim, ^' Better not be, than be nothing, ^^ 
and also that ^^No pleasure equals the pleasure of 
study, ^^ since ^^ Thorough acquaintance with the 
Four Books and Five Classics procures for the 
family emolument from heaven. ^^ If this course is 
chosen, his son must not be a pedant, '' Gnawing 
sentences and chewing characters ; " much less a B. 

4 



50 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T*ANG 

A., who is ''^ A mere bag of false characters/^ since the 
superficial scholar is ^' Like a sheep dressed in a tiger^s 
skin/^ '^ To make a man of yourself^ you must toil ; 
if you don% you won't/' 

If the boy is to be a laborer^ let him remember that 
'^ By perseverance one may grind an iron anchor into 
a needle/' and that ^^ Any kind of life on earth is 
better than being under ground/' He must expect 
little respite from toil, since ^* No-work is two fairies/' 
and ^^ To be entirely at leisure for one day, is to be 
for one day an Immortal/' If he labors without 
skill, he will be unsuccessful, '^ A blind fowl picking 
at random after worms/' 

3. Marriage and family life. '' When sons are 
paired and daughters mated, the principal business 
of life is accomplished" by parents ; not to so dispose 
of a daughter is dangerous, since " When a daughter 
is grown up, she is like smuggled salt" — liable to be 
seized. As " Nine women in ten are jealous," and as 
^^It is impossible to be more malevolent than a 
woman," the husband manages her on the principle 
that '' Nothing will frighten a wilful wife but a beat- 
ing/' Should either party die, ^' A widow does not 
stay so more than a month," and as for the widower, 
^' A wife is like a wall of mud bricks ; take off one 
row, and there is another beneath it/' Indeed, if 
left childless remarriage is necessary inasmuch as 
^' There are three things that are unfilial, and to have 
no posterity is the greatest of these/' Notwithstand- 
ing these facts and the saying that '' Nobody's family 
can hang up the sign. Nothing the matter here," it 
is still true that while " Customs vary in every place, 
there is no place like home/' 

4. Moral maxims. According to the proverb, 
^^ Good men are scarce/' Some are " Lying ma- 
chines," others '' Black hearts and rotten livers," 
while everyone must confess at night that '' In pass- 
ing over the day in the usual way, there are four 
ounces of sin." Has one been impure? ^^ Of ten 
thousand evils lewdness is the head/' Is he hypo- 



''THE REAL CHINAMAN'' 51 

critical? '' He has the month of a Buddha, the heart 
of a snake/^ Avoid ^*The three great evils, lechery, 
gambling, and opium-smoking/" Do not say " The 
truth is another name for stupidity, ^^ nor excuse your 
wrong-doing, if poor, by the proverb, '' The poorer 
one gets, the more devils one meets/^ 

Kemember, rather, that " The best and strongest 
man in the world finds that he cannot escape the two 
words, No continuance,'^ and that ^' An upright 
heart does not fear demons." ^^ Good men have fire 
three feet above their heads ; evil spirits will do well 
to avoid it/' Then " Belying upon Heaven, eat 
your rice/' and ^^Pray to the gods, as if they were 
present/' 



IV 

RELIGIOKS OF THE CHIl^ESE 

While the Chinese commonly speak of ^^The Three 
Religions '' of the Empire, meaning thereby Confu- 
cianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, one must not imagine 
that all their religion is included under these names, 
nor yet that any person is an adherent of any single 
one of these systems to the exclusion of the others. 
Each sect has borrowed from the other two, and all 
have appropriated much from primitive religions 
existing from the earliest times. In discussing the 
topic, the order followed is a chronological one, 
though Taoism precedes Confucianism solely on the 
ground of Lao-tzu^s superiority in age, and not be- 
cause it was fully developed before Confucianism had 
become well established. Mohammedanism, though 
widely held, is reserved for the next chapter. 

Nature-worship. — 1. That fetiches are powerful 
and prevalent is evidenced by charms of various sorts, 
stones, — especially from the holy mountain, T'^ai Shan, 
— sacred trees and fountains, and the employment of 
wormwood and sedge, as the rowan-tree and woodbine 
were formerly used in England. If convinced that 
any object is ling, possessed of some mystic potency, 
no amount of reasoning is likely to prevent the pos- 
sessor from seeking its assistance, or devoting to it 
some paltry offering. 

2. Many features of totem worship are noticed in 
connection with special trees and animals, but the 
clearest case of such reverence is that shown to the 
dragon, the grand totem of the Empire, notwith- 
standing the fact that he is only an imaginary being. 
These creatures — there are three prominent dragons, 

52 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 53 

one of the sky, another of the sea, and a third of the 
marshes — may have found in the fossil iguanodon 
their prototype. The only truly orthodox species, 
that of the sky, '' has the head of a camel, the horns 
of a deer, eyes of a rabbit, ears of a cow, neck of a 
snake, belly of a frog, scales of a carp, claws of a 
hawk, and palm of a tiger. On each side of the 
mouth are whiskers, and its beard contains a bright 
pearl ; the breath is sometimes changed into water 
and sometimes into fire, and its voice is like the 
jingling of copper pans.^^ He is all powerful and 
is associated in thought with the Emperor, who sits 
on the dragon throne, has as his ensign the dragon 
flag, and at death " ascends upon the dragon to be a 
guest on high.^^ But the common people are also 
deeply influenced by him, as f eng shui depends upon 
the right relation of celestial and terrestrial influ- 
ences presided over by the dragon and the tiger. 
Hence they pay him homage in caves, which are his 
favorite places of resort, worshipping in lieu of him 
a lizard caught in the cave, or images of gods placed 
there for the purpose. 

Another apparent case of totemism is found in the 
cyclical designation of years, twelve animals, the dog, 
pig, rat, ox, tiger, etc., being used in rotation five 
times to indicate the sixty years of a cycle. A fre- 
quent way of asking one^s age is to inquire to what 
animal one belongs. This custom is not totemistic, 
however, but is useful in fortune-telling and indicates 
that persons born during the year denoting the speci- 
fied animal should not be present when certain events 
are to transpire, lest some deadly influence should 
be visited upon them. Obviously, also, it would be 
highly unfortunate for a man born in the year of the 
rat to marry a woman belonging to the dog, as in the 
Chinese view they would have ^^a rat and dog time 
of it,^^ and the husband be worsted. After death a 
man^s relation to his animal seems to be truly totem- 
istic, as the dead must carry to the lower world a 
chest of money to propitiate this animal, in order 



54 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

to prevent it from making him carry the animal 
about. 

3. Aiihnal worship outside of totemistic lines is 
very prevalent. Aside from the dragon, who domi- 
nates the scaly race, two other imaginary creatures, 
the lin, a sort of cross between the stag and unicorn 
and head of hairy animals, and the feng, or phoenix, 
pre-eminent among the feathered race, are highly 
reverenced. To complete the quinary system of an- 
cient Chinese naturalists, the representative of the 
shelly tribe, the tortoise, and man, sovereign of naked 
animals, must be added ; these also are reverenced. 
Other animals worshipped are the following : The 
monkey, known as ^^ His Excellency, the Holy King ; '' 
the fox, worshipped by mandarins as having the seals 
of high office under his control, and reverenced by 
the people because of his supposed relation to some 
diseases ; the tiger, worshipped by gamblers for good 
luck under the name, ^^ His Excellency, the Grasp- 
ing Cash Tiger, ^^ and by mothers in behalf of sick 
children ; the dog, Avorshipped before childbirth by 
women who were born in the year belonging to the 
dog ; the hedgehog, regarded as a living god of 
wealth ; and snakes, certain of which are deemed 
divine. While not worshipped, the magpie, crow, 
cat, hen, swallow, bat, and owl are creatures of good 
or ill omen, and are, therefore, to be carefully 
watched. 

4. The worship of ancestors, forming the back- 
bone of Confucianism in its practical outcome, is the 
Gibraltar of Chinese belief, before which Christianity 
stands almost powerless. Its central position is thus 
described by J. Dyer Ball : ^^ Ancestral worship is filial 
piety gone mad. True to their practice of retaining 
customs and habits for centuries and millenniums, the 
Chinese nation has not given up this most ancient 
form of worship ; and the original worship of ances- 
tors, like the older formations of rocks on the earth^s 
surface, is strong as the everlasting hills, and, though 
overlaid by other cults, as the primary rocks are by 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 55 

other strata, it is still at the foundation, nearly all 
the other methods of worship being later additions 
and accretions. The worshipping of ancestors thus 
underlies most of their religion, and many of their 
every-day acts and deeds. ^ Social customs, judicial 
decisions, appointments to the office of Prime Minis- 
ter, and even the succession to the throne are influ- 
enced by it/ . . . This worship is the only one 
that is entitled to the name of the National Eeligion 
of China, as the dead are the objects of worship of 
poor and rich, young and old, throughout the length 
and breadth of this immense Empire/^ 

The basis of Chinese ancestral worship is found in 
the belief that a man possesses three souls, which 
after death reside in the ancestral tablet, in the tomb 
and in Hades respectively. These souls have the 
same needs after death as before, the satisfaction of 
which rests with survivors, especially the eldest son of 
the deceased. To satisfy these needs, clothing, house- 
hold articles, money, etc., made of paper, must be 
transmitted to the spirit-world through fire, thus be- 
coming invisible and so suited to invisible spirits, 
while food can be immediately partaken in its essence 
by the spirits. The government of the lower world 
is the counterpart of that in China, and officials of 
Hades are open to bribery and look upon the out- 
ward appearance, just as in earthly ya-m^ns. This 
not only calls for much paper money, but also for the 
assistance of a corrupt horde of priests who merci- 
lessly fleece survivors. The system presupposes that 
disembodied spirits are more powerful than in life, 
and if their wants are not fully supplied, they can, 
and probably will, bring varied calamities upon their 
posterity. Fear thus becomes the all-powerful spur 
to filial piety toward dead ancestors. 

One must admit that this worship has 'benefited 
China by inculcating a reverence for parents, which 
has thence reached upward and caused national respect 
for rulers and emperors. It has also made women 
honored, especially the wife ; so that but one tablet 



56 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T*ANG 

being allowed for mother, there is only one wife, even 
in polygamous households, the rest being concubines. 
Chinese women thus rank higher in domestic posi- 
tion than those of any other Asiatic or heathen race. 
On the other hand, ancestral worship is Ghina^s 
lane, as well as a sin against God. It is a useless ex- 
pense — $151,752,000 per annum, according to Dr. 
Yates^s careful estimate — to a people who sorely need 
every dollar. It congests population, instead of al- 
lowing colonization to sparsely settled sections of the 
Empire, since one must be buried near the ancestral 
hall or among relatives. For the same reason, it sub- 
stitutes for love of country in general a love of home, 
making the people extremely selfish and provincial. 
Early marriages and polygamy are very largely charge- 
able to the desire for male offspring to minister 
to parents after death. The worship often makes 
such exorbitant exactions on the poor that pressing 
wants of the living are neglected in consequence. 
Individual liberty is apt to be destroyed by the ex- 
treme views of parental authority, the son fearing to 
espouse Christianity, for example, lest death might 
be the penalty for failure to participate in idolatrous 
post-mortem ceremonies. Its doctrine of parental 
divinities of great power drives out all theories of di- 
vine retribution, thus substituting parental likes and 
dislikes for eternal principles. And, most serious of 
all, dead ancestors are put in the place of the one 
Father and Judge of all men. 

5. By an extension of the above worship, China 
has come by many deified heroes, who commonly be- 
come gods through Imperial decree. Happily, those 
thus promoted are not personifications of the vices 
deified by ancient Greece, Kome, and India, though 
they are often men of blameworthy life. 

6. In the first mention of religious worship found 
in Chinese history, we read of the Emperor Shun, 
^' Thereafter he sacrificed specially, but with the or- 
dinary forms, to Shang Ti ; sacrificed with purity to 
the Six Honored Ones ; offered appropriate sacrifices 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 57 

to the hills and rivers, and extended his worship to 
the host of spirits/^ Probably in the earliest times 
this Sliang Ti, or Supreme Ruler, often called Heaven, 
was regarded as a personal, supreme Being. Though 
His worship still survives, it can be engaged in only 
by the Emperor, who, as Son of Heaven, periodically 
offers up solemn sacrifices, especially at the winter 
solstice. It is the prevalent opinion of Western 
scholars that no idea of personality has been attached 
to the names Heaven — T^ien — and Shang Ti for many 
centuries, though a few recent native writers are 
shaking off the trammels of Chu Fu-tzii and assert 
personality of those terms. So far as Heaven is re- 
garded as the material vault of azure, Chinese native 
worship reaches its zenith in the impressive Imperial 
ceremonies at the Altar of Heaven in Peking. 

Taoism. — 1. Its founder, Lao-tzu, the Venerable 
Philosopher, owes his title quite largely to Confu- 
cius^s use of it after their famous interview in 517 B.C. 
His surname was Li, or Plum, his name Erh, or Ear, 
and his birthplace in the eastern corner of Ho-nan 
province. Here Li first saw the light about 604 B.C., 
fifty-three years before the birth of Confucius. After 
one has run the gauntlet of legend-mongers, the pos- 
sible facts are left that he was Keeper of Archives at 
the Imperial Court, was interviewed by Confucius, fore- 
saw the inevitable downfall of the Chou dynasty, and 
went into retirement in consequence, and later depart- 
ed to a far country of the West, stopping on his way 
with the keeper of the northwestern pass, at whose 
request he dictated the original canon of Taoism, the 
Tao-te Ching. He has been likened to the Greek Zeno 
and the French Eousseau, and he certainly was a pro- 
testant against the evils of his age, like Luther. Emi- 
nently practical in some of his views, he was on the 
whole a transcendental dreamer, as well as China^s 
first great philosopher. 

2. The Scripture of Lao-tzu, the Tao-te Ching, or 
Canon of Keason and Virtue, contains only 5,320 
characters, which can be read in thirty-six minutes. 



58 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

It is thus the shortest of Sacred Canons, being less 
than half the length of St. Mark's Gospel. The dif- 
ficulty of interpreting the book may be guessed from 
the perplexity of translators concerning the equivalent 
for Tao, which has been rendered Way, Eeason, 
Word, Logos, and Nature, and also from the terms in 
which the treatise itself speaks of Tao. Professor 
Douglas, while regarding Way as the best single equiv- 
alent, adds : ^^ But Tao is more than the way. It is 
the way, and the way -goer. It is an eternal road ; 
along it all beings and things walk ; but no being 
made it, for it is being itself ; it is everything and 
nothing, and the cause and effect of all. All things 
originate from Tao, conform to Tao, and to Tao at 
last they return. '^ As nearly as one can describe it, 
Tao seems to be '"' (1) the Absolute, the totality of 
being and things ; (2) the phenomenal world and its 
order; and (3) the ethical nature of the good man 
and the principle of his action/^ 

Otl its practical side the Tao-te Ohing promulgates 
a politico-ethical system by which Lao-tzu attempts 
to reform the Empire by wooing the people back to 
a primitive state of society. Self-abnegation is the 
cardinal rule for sovereign and subject alike. ^^ I 
have three precious things which I hold fast and 
prize, viz.y compassion, economy, and humility. Be- 
ing compassionate I can be brave, being economical 
I can be liberal, and being humble I can become the 
chief of men.'^ In the amplification following this 
quotation, Lao-tzii shows himself to be the Christian 
as opposed to the Confucian Moses, and especially in 
another injunction ^^ to recompense injury with kind- 
ness,'^ to which Confucius stoutly objected. 

3. Though Lao-tzu was China's Pythagoras, ^^ the 
first great awakener of thought," later Taoist leaders 
degenerated, until Eationalism, as Taoism has been 
translated, became the most irrational of beliefs. 
Lieh and Chuang, two celebrated Taoist writers of 
the fifth and fourth centuries, B.C. — if indeed Lieh 
is a historical character — did more than their master 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 59 

to illustrate and popularize his ideas. The former so 
far departed from Lao-tzu^s spirit that he taught 
Epicureanism. Chuang, on the other hand^ after 
popularizing Taoism, came to doubt differences in 
motives and the reality of personal existence. Life 
was merely a series of phantasmata. Thus after 
dreaming that he was a butterfly, the dazed philos- 
opher asks, ^^ Was the vision that I was a butterfly a 
dream or a reality ? or am I now a butterfly dream- 
ing that I am Chuang-tzii ? ^^ Another Taoist writer, 
nameless, though probably of the Sung dynasty, has 
given to his sect and to China one of the most widely 
read religious books of the Empire, the Kan Ying 
P^ien, or Book of Eewards and Punishments. So far 
is it from being imaginative or fanciful that it is 
little else than a list of virtues and vices which are 
to be cultivated or avoided ; since for great faults 
twelve years are deducted from one^s life and a hun- 
dred days for small faults. It is thus a system of 
moral book-keeping between man and the spirits, the 
spirit of the hearth being a sort of detective to check 
up the facts. 

4. But to other leaders and writers than the above, 
Taoism owes its awful degradation. Before the in- 
troduction of Buddhism, it had so captured the Great 
Wall Builder that he despatched two expeditions, 
consisting of thousands of girls and young men, to 
the golden islands of the blest to secure from the 
genii the draught of immortality. From that time 
onward it gave itself increasingly to magic, the search 
for the philosopher's stone, the elixir vitae and pills 
of immortality. For high ideals and eternal truths, 
it gave its followers senseless shibboleths to ward off 
evil spirits, and no less harmful moral falsehoods in 
the shape of rituals and sacrifices in honor of a host 
of newly created gods and goddesses. 

5. If one would know the Taoism of to-day, one 
has only to follow men in slate-colored habit, wearing 
caps out of the top of which project a knot of hair, 
to their temples or communal homes, and note there 



6o DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

the many gods ranging from Lao-tzii and his compan- 
ions in the trinity of The Three Pure Ones, through 
the powerful Pearly Emperor, the Bushel Mother of 
the North Star, the Chinese Mars, Kuan Ti, the no 
less noted God of Literature, the everywhere-present 
God of Wealth, — Buddhism also claims him, — down to 
the most common and potent deity of all, the cheap 
paper kitchen god, found near the hearth of nearly 
every family of the Empire. Hardly less than a liv- 
ing deity is the pope of Taoism, who has his abode 
in the picturesque Lung Hu Shan — Dragon and 
Tiger mountains — of Chiang-hsi, whence, by Im- 
perial permission, he rules the Taoist world. 

Other proofs of the power of this faith are seen in 
magic scrawls on houses, gates, and people, in Taoist 
fortune-tellers, in Cagliostros not a few, who will fur- 
nish purchasers with pills of immortality, and in ten 
thousand superstitions, most of them Taoist in origin, 
which harass millions '' who through fear of death 
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ^^ Spirits 
above and spirits below, demons on the right hand 
and on the left, fears in life and terrors at death, 
drive the superstition-ridden victim to the supposed 
saviour, the Taoist priest, whose costly ministrations 
leave one to despairingly cry, with Queen Katherine, 

" Spirits of peace, where are ye? are ye all gone? 
And leave me here in wretchedness behind ye? " 

Confucianism, the Sect of the Lettered. — 

Confucius — the Latinized form of K^ung Fu-tzu, the 
Master K^ung — is the '^ Throneless King " of nearly 
twenty-five centuries, and of one-fourth the human 
race. No other mere man, Buddha not excepted, has 
had so extensive an influence as he, nor set such an 
ineffaceable stamp upon a race, 

1. Some items from Ms life will help the reader to 
understand his marvellous power. K^ung, whose 
adult name was Chung-ni, was born in 551 B.C., in a 
village near the centre of what is now Shan-tung 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 6 1 

province. His father was a military officer dis- 
tingnished for bravery and physical strength, figuring 
in one story as a Samson raising a closed portcullis, 
thus allowing his imprisoned soldiers to escape. He 
died when his son was three years old, and his mother, 
in spite of straitened circumstances, took charge of his 
education. As a boy he delighted to " play at the ar- 
rangement of vessels and at postures of ceremony. ^^ 

At fifteen he '' bent his mind to learning,'^ and be- 
came an earnest student and admirer of the great 
characters of Chinese history, especially Yao and 
Shun. Marrying at nineteen, one son and two daugh- 
ters were born to him, whose descendants now consti- 
tute a fair-sized city in the home of their great ances- 
tor. Poverty caused the young man to fill a number 
of petty offices, but at twenty-two he was able to be- 
gin his career as teacher, surrounded by a band of ad- 
miring and earnest students. A year later his mother 
died, and Confucius went into a three years' mourn- 
ing, which he devoted to study and meditation. 
Later we see him and his disciples in his native state, 
except for short intervals, till 517 B.C., when he fied, 
as did his Duke, on account of political disorders. 

Sixteen years more elapsed before his great oppor- 
tunity came to put into practical execution those 
theories of government that he had so enthusiastically 
taught his 3,000 followers. Then, at the age of fifty, 
he became governor of the town of Chung-tu, a year 
later was made Minister of Works for the State, and 
also Minister of Crime, and for three years so con- 
ducted affairs that we are told, " He strengthened the 
ruling house, and weakened the ministers and chiefs. 
A transforming government went abroad. Dishon- 
esty and dissoluteness were ashamed, and hid their 
heads. Loyalty and good faith became the character- 
istics of the men, and chastity and docility those of 
the women. Strangers flocked to Lu from other 
states.'^ The jealousy of neighboring principalities 
soon invaded this Utopia, and a lure of beautiful 
courtesans and fine horses, sent by a plotting marquis. 



62 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

caused a breach between the Sage and his ruler. Ac- 
cordingly he left his beloved Lu to roam among 
neighboring states, accompanied by his disciples. 
Courted by some, assailed by others, he journeyed on, 
a mystery to princelets, who were too small to per- 
ceive in him a seer and sage. 

In his sixty-fifth year he was recalled to his nativa 
state, where he spent the remaining years of his life 
in putting finishing touches to his edition of the an- 
cient writings, in digesting the odes and reforming 
the music with which they were accompanied, and in 
composing his only surviving original work, the 
Ch^un Ch'^iu, or Spring and Autumn Annals. 

But the pitcher was soon to break at the fountain. 
Confucius had ceased to dream of his great hero, 
Duke Chou, and one spring morning, as he walked 
before his door, he was heard crooning over another 
presage of his end, 

'' The great mountain must crumble ; 
The strong beam must break ; 
And the wise man withers away like a plant." 

The last recorded speech and dream of the Sage had 
to do with the funeral ceremonies of ancient dynas- 
ties, after which he took to his bed, where he died a 
few days later, in 479 or 478 B.C. His weeping disci- 
ples buried him beneath the tumulus which to-day 
survives as the Mecca of Confucianism, surrounded 
by sombre cypresses, regal halls and courts, eulogistic 
monuments of marble, and the graves of more than 
seventy generations of his posterity. His own gener- 
ation knew not Joseph, but later centuries have not 
ceased to do him highest reverence. 

2. Only a word can be said of Confucius' s character. 
His family life, though somewhat more fortunate than 
that of Socrates, was not very commendable, and he 
apparently rejoiced when she died. His son also was 
so sternly and scornfully dealt with by the father, that 
one can believe that he had failed in the matter of 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 63 

paternal duty. While the charge of untruthfulness 
and insincerity can be supported, he usually had a 
high regard for truth and righteousness. 

His attitude toward the past, as described by him- 
self, is found in the words, '^ A transmitter and not 
a maker, believing in and loving the ancients/^ This 
meant the restoration of ancient life and ceremonial 
in person, family, and state, and to accomplish this 
object he gave himself with a perseverance, courage, 
and lack of compromise that are phenomenal. He 
felt that Heaven had committed to him the right 
waj^, and that he was immortal till his work was 
done. The student desirous of getting a comprehen- 
sive view of the Sage^s life and character should read 
Book VII. of the Analects, where he is seen in the 
varied relations of life. 

His disciples tell us that ^^ there were four things 
from which he was free, foregone conclusions, arbi- 
trary determinations, obstinacy, and egoism ; that 
there were four subjects which he avoided in talking 
with them, extraordinary things, feats of strength, 
rebellious disorder, and spirits ; that there were four 
things which he taught them, letters, ethics, leal- 
heartedness, and truthfulness ; that there were three 
things of which he seldom spoke, profitableness, the 
appointments [of Heaven], and perfect virtue ; and 
that there were three things in regard to which he 
thought the greatest caution should be exercised, 
fasting [as preliminary to sacrifice], war, and [the 
treatment of] disease. ^^ 

3. Confucian literature is popularly said to consist 
of Thirteen Canons, the ^^ Four Books ^^ and '' Five 
Classics ^^ being most important. The most widely 
known of these are the Ssu Shu — Four Books. The 
Ta Hsiieh, or Great Learning, and the Chung Yung, 
or Doctrine of the Mean, were taken from the Li Chi 
by Chu Hsi to form two of the Shu. The first chap- 
ter of the former contains Conf ucius^s words as handed 
down by Tseng, and the remainder is made up of 
quotations selected by him and Chu Hsi. The Chung 



64 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T*ANG 

Yung, the most philosophic of the Four Books, was 
composed by Confucius^s grandson, and its object is 
to illustrate the nature of virtue and the character of 
the princely man. The Lun Yii, or Analects, is a 
collection of reminiscences of the Master, recalled by 
various disciples, thus resembling Lu therms ^^ Tisch- 
reden/^ or BoswelFs ^^ Life of Johnson/' The fourth 
section of the Four Books, and more than half of the 
whole collection, is made up of the writings of Mmg- 
tzu, or Mencius, who was a keener philosopher than 
his master, though he lived more than a century later, 
from 371 to 288 B.C. After his death his disciples 
collected his conversations and exhortations and pub- 
lished them in this form. 

The Wu Ching — Five Classics — are as follows : 
Yi Ching, Booh of Changes, ranking first or third in 
antiquity among the Classics, and sometimes ascribed 
even to the legendary Fu Hsi. Though commonly 
regarded as a cosmological and ethical treatise, some 
modern Orientalists claim that it is in its fundamental 
form an Accadian syllabary. The Shu Ching, Booh 
of History, may have been originally compiled by 
Confucius from the historical remains of dynasties 
previous to his time, and contains much of a didactic 
nature. It is probably first in age of all the Classics, 
and contains the ^^ seeds of all things that are valu- 
able in the eyes of the Chinese. '^ The Shih Ching, 
Booh of Odes, contains three hundred and eleven 
ballads, used by the people of China^'s ancient petty 
states, which were selected and arranged by Confucius, 
who attached great value to them as a means of mould- 
ing the national character. The Eituals are three in 
number, only one of which, the Li Clii, Record of 
Rites, a sort of digest of other collections, is officially 
recognized as canonical. M. Callery says of it : 
^^ Ceremony epitomizes the entire Chinese mind ; 
and, in my opinion, the Li Chi is per se the most 
exact and complete monograph that China has been 
able to give of itself to other nations. '^ The Ch^un 
Ch^iu, Spring and Autumn [Annals], was prepared 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 65 

by Confucius, aided by his disciples, as a supplement 
to the Shu Ching, in order to continue the history of 
his -;'Wn state down to the year 480 or 484 B.C. The 
above five works, though less know^n than the more 
commonly studied Four Books, are regarded as more 
valuable to the state. 

4. The teachings of Confucius — more strictly, the 
teachings of ancient history, Mencius and Chu Hsi 
— are ethical rather than religious, and look to the 
state rather than to the individual, though self -cult- 
ure is fundamental in his system. This latter point 
is evidenced by Confucius^s ^^ House that Jack 
Built, ^^ found in the Great Learning : '' The ancients, 
wishing to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the 
Empire, first ordered well their own states. Wishing 
to order well their states, they first regulated their 
families. Wishing to regulate their families, they 
first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate 
their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wish- 
ing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be 
sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in 
their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost 
their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay 
in the investigation of things. ^^ 

Th^five relations underlying the Confucian state 
— existing between prince and minister, father and 
son, husband and wife, elder and younger brothers, 
and between friends — are thus described in a primer 
that has been committed to memory by more boys 
than any other in existence : ^^ Affection between 
father and son ; concord between husband and wife ; 
kindness on the part of the elder brother, and defer- 
ence on the part of the younger ; order between 
seniors and juniors ; sincerity between friends and 
associates ; respect on the part of the ruler, and loy- 
alty on that of the minister : — these are the ten right- 
eous courses equally binding on all men.'^ " The five 
regular constituents of our moral nature, ^^ known as 
the tou ch'angy are benevolence, righteousness, pro- 
priety, knowledge, and truth, or faithfulness, while 



66 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

the five hlessings, or happiness^ as named in the 
Shu Ching, are long life^ wealthy tranquillity, desire 
for virtue, and a natural death. A study of these re- 
lations, virtues, and blessings, together with that of 
the chilU'tzu jen, or princely man, and of the individ- 
ual as related to the state, will acquaint one with the 
prevalent Confucian ideas. 

While Confucianism is atheistic in tendency, and 
often in fact, it cannot be strictly so called. Heaven 
is spoken of as conferring the nature of man. Filial 
piety, so characteristic of the system, demands the 
worship of spirits of the dead. Imperial worship is 
actually paid to Heaven and the Supreme Kuler ; 
and lest the worship of Heaven and earth should be 
considered a worship of natural forces merely, Confu- 
cius said, *^The ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven 
and earth are those by which we serve the Supreme 
Euler.^^ Yet it must be confessed that while the 
materialism of Chu Fu-tzu dominates Chinese scholar- 
ship, and the literati can quote Confucius^s reticence 
concerning spirits and the future life, it is hopeless to 
think of deriving much leverage from Confucianism 
as the missionary tries to introduce the idea of God. 
The word Reciprocity and the Confucian form of the 
Golden Rule, '^ Self what not desire, do not do to 
men,^^ may be helps to teaching Christian ethics, but 
the spirit and content of Christianity must be im- 
ported cle novo, 

5. Modern Confucian doctrine is summed up in the 
^^ Sacred Edicts, ^^ issued three centuries ago by the 
celebrated Emperor K^ang Hsi, and wrongly supposed 
to be read and explained by officials twice each month 
to an eagerly listening populace. The sixteen precepts 
inculcate filial piety and brotherly submission, gen- 
erosity to kindred, cultivation of peace toward neigh- 
bors, importance of husbandry, economy, education, 
banishment of strange doctrines, explanation of the 
laws, propriety and courtesy, diligence in labor, in- 
struction of sons and younger brothers in right doing, 
protection against false accusation, warning against 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 67 

aiding deserters, prompt payment of taxes, combina- 
tion against thieves and robbers, and the removal of 
resentment and angry feelings. 

6. The ivorshipoi " The Perfect Sage, the Ancient 
Teacher Confucius,^^ is performed in its simplest form 
by every school-boy before his tablet, and by officials 
in 1,500 provincial temples, where twice each year 
38,306 animals are sacrificed and 27,600 pieces of silk 
are offered at his shrine. While the most elaborate 
temple is found at his Shan-tung home, his worship 
reaches its acme in the Confucian Temple at Peking, 
where the Emperor goes in state semi-annually to 
worship, sacrifice, and pray to the '' Teacher, in virtue 
equal to Heaven and earth, whose doctrines embrace 
the past times and the present, ^^ as well as to Mencius 
and three other hardly less famous disciples of the 
Sage, Yen, Tseng, and Tzu Ssil. 

Buddhism, or Sect of Fo. — The last to enter of 
the three great sects. Buddhism satisfied, as the other 
two did not, longings of the soul as to the future, and 
consequently largely modified Taoism and to some 
extent influenced Confucianism. 

1. This most popular of Chinese religions may 
have been introduced into China about 250 B.C. ; 
though, as opinions without sufficient evidence are 
valueless, this traditional entrance may be rejected 
and the usual date in the seventh decade of the first 
Christian century, about the time of St. PauFs death, 
be accepted. Not that Buddhism was then heard of 
for the first time — for at the date of our Saviour^s ad- 
vent China certainly had become acquainted with the 
Buddhist canons and images — but not till then did 
the superstitious Emperor Ming dream that a golden 
man had flown into the audience hall. A courtier 
suggesting that it might point to Buddha, the Em- 
peror sent an under-secretary to India to try and get 
it. Forty-two chapters of the Buddhist canon and 
a standing image of Buddha were obtained, a monas- 
tery was prepared near the capital, and translation 
of the canon and preaching began. Thereafter for 



68 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

seven centuries zealous Buddhist missionaries of India 
came and went in a ceaseless stream, '^ joining the 
caravans entering the northwestern marts and ships 
trading at southern ports/^ 

2. The spread of Buddhism was rapid at times, as 
during the Sui dynasty when it reached its zenith ; 
and at others persecution almost wiped out the faith, 
as when, in a.d. 845, 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 
smaller religious houses were destroyed, their copper 
bells and images made into cash, and 260,000 monks 
and nuns forced to return to secular life. To-day, 
in spite of K^ang Hsi^s seventh edict, '' Discounten- 
ance and banish strange doctrines, in order to exalt 
the correct doctrine " — aimed especially at Buddhism 
as opposed to Confucianism — Buddhist temples are 
on all ^^ the hills and under every green tree,^^ and 
Buddhist monks and nuns greatly outnumber those 
of the Taoists. 

3. Popular Buddhistic docti^ines in China are of 
the northern type, as opposed to the cold and cheer- 
less faith of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam. While there 
are two great divisions and thirteen Buddhist sects in 
the Empire, they differ little in popular estimation ; 
and as they have borrowed from Confucianism ^^its 
reverence for ancestors and for state, and from Taoism 
its demigods and its geomantic superstitions,^^ men of 
every creed rejoice in its banyan-like shade. 

Their belief concerning Buddha is almost identical 
with that found in Asvaghosha^s ^^ Life of Buddha,^' 
and thus resembles what is found in Arnold^s ^' Light 
of Asia."" 

Theoretically the great laws of Buddha are eight : 
^^ Eight views,"'" including the faculty for discerning 
the truth; ^^ equal and unvarying wisdom,'" i.e., ab- 
sence of evil or pernicious thoughts ; ^^ right speech,"" 
excluding idle or pernicious language ; ^' correct con- 
duct,"" or purity ; ^^ right life,"" or that of a religious 
mendicant ; ^' right endeavor,"" or the use of proper 
expedients ; ^^ right recollection,"" or repeating from 
a true memory Buddha"s law and the formulae of wor- 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 69 

ship; and ^^ right meditation/^ or the exercise of a 
mental abstraction that leaves the mind vacant for 
the entrance of truth. ^^ These are the eight roads, 
even and level, by which to avoid the sorrow of re- 
peated birth and death/^ Practically, however, the 
Chinese Buddhist cares more for a work called " The 
Kules of Merit and Transgression ^^ than for such ab- 
stract teachings. Thus he is careful to do good deeds, 
the most meritorious of which are to marry, when 
rich, a deformed girl to whom betrothed when poor, 
to publish a part of the Classics, and to forgive a 
debt, each netting him one hundred credits ; to de- 
stroy the stereotype plates of immoral books, three 
hundred credits, and to seek to be pure through life, 
credit 1,000. Similarly the pious Buddhist will avoid 
loving a wife more than father and mother, being 
guilty of usury, cooking beef or dog-meat, digging up 
a coffin, and drowning an infant, all of which inflict 
one hundred demerits, and will especially avoid pub- 
lishing an obscene book, the penalty for which is 
measureless. 

The doctrine of metempsychosis ^ which underlies 
all Buddhistic teaching, and which was incorporated 
from Buddhism into the later Taoism, makes life de- 
sirable or undesirable, according to one^s present lot 
and one^s balance of merit or demerit. The wheel 
of transmigration ceaselessly turning in Hades with 
its six ranks or spokes — insects, fish, birds, animals, 
poor men, and mandarins — renders the death-bed a 
place of curious and awful dread. Yet this is the 
firm belief of almost every man, woman, and child in 
China — even of the learned Confucianist, who, with 
his exaltation of filial piety, sometimes yields before 
Buddha^s reason for not eating flesh, viz,, that in so 
doing one might very likely eat an ancestor, reborn 
in animal form. 

The Buddhist heaven was a new idea to the Chi- 
nese. They care little, however, for the heavens de- 
scribed in Sanskrit phrases — the lower ones admitting 
of sensuous pleasures, and the superior heavens where 



70 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

happiness consists in thought or pure being ; still less 
do they care for the highest heavens^ which '^ admit of 
no thought, nor do they exclude it ; the condition 
here is purely transcendental/^ What millions long 
for, and only thousands can reasonably hope to attain, 
is the Western Paradise. '' This happy region is ex- 
quisitely adorned with gold and silver and precious 
gems. There are pure waters with golden sands, sur- 
rounded by pleasant walks, and covered with large 
lotus flowers. . . . Again, heavenly music is 
ever heard in this abode ; flowers rain down each day 
three times. . . . Again, there are in this para- 
dise birds of every kind, . . . which during the 
six watches raise their notes in concert to sing the 
praises of religion. . . . Again, the name of hell 
is there an unknown word ; there is no birth in ' an 
evil way,^ no fear of such births. . . . And liv- 
ing there is a multitude of purified and venerable 
persons, difficult to count, innumerable, incalculable. 
And therefore all beings ought to make fervent prayer 
for that country.''^ 

Over against this ineffable glory must be put the 
Buddhist hells, or earth-prisons, which, however, are 
not often distinguished one from another in the pop- 
ular mind. The ordinary conception is gained from 
the hell found in some Buddhist temples, where, 
set forth with all the plastic or pictorial arts, are 
seen the horrors of the damned, most of whom are 
women. The ten kings of hell, infernal lictors, black, 
white, and blue devils, the mortar, mill, chopping- 
knife, caldron of boiling oil, cylinder, village of wild 
dogs, lake of blood, bridge of snakes, hill of knives 
— all with their suffering victims — demons sawing 
women asunder or pulling out their tongues, men 
wandering aimlessly up rugged heights with decapi- 
tated head in hand, are all so grewsomely depicted or 
sculptured in that chamber of horrors, that even for- 
eigners cannot sleep after visiting one because of 
troubled dreams. 

And what is the Buddhist's salvation ? The Nirvana 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 7 1 

of the books, gained in Buddha^s way ; but straight 
is that gate, and only a pitiful few of China^s millions 
are seen agonizing to enter in thereat. As for the 
rest, if they live a compassionate, benevolent life, and 
have a large credit on their moral ledger, a better 
transmigration may be expected — a woman be born a 
man, if she has been surpassingly saintly, and a poor 
man be reborn as a scholar with a sure chance of 
growing rich from the spoils of office. There are 
also saviours among the gods who can aid mortals, 
thanks to the attempt of Northern Buddhism to meet 
an inborn need of every human soul. 

4. The Buddhist priesthood is too ignorant and 
inactive to merit special mention. Monks and nuns 
are scarcely distinguishable, as both sexes have un- 
bound feet, loose socks and trousers, yellow robes, 
made flowing to allow for spiritual influences, and 
clean-shaven pates. Begging alms in the street, 
raising funds for temple repairs by various nerve- 
moving austerities, and their numerous and noisy 
presence at the prolonged wake preceding funerals, 
constitute their main extra-temple functions. 

5. Temples and pagodas are the architectural con- 
tributions of Buddhism to the community, though 
Confucianism and Taoism claim the latter as super- 
lative instruments for bringing to earth the celestial 
influences so essential to geomancy. Except in cities, 
temples are always beautifully situated, usually in 
some quiet or picturesque spot. Their generous 
courts and capacious buildings are the resort of visi- 
tors, as well as the dwelling-place of many gods and 
of their human attendants. 

6. The worship at these temples is largely liturgical 
and hence incomprehensible, as the liturgy is in 
Sanskrit, which is only imperfectly represented by 
Chinese sounds. The portly abbot supported by his 
retinue of monks, candles and burning incense, the 
monotonous droning of liturgies, the repetition of 
merit-bringing phrases and prayers accompanied by 
the rattle of rosaries, the measured beating of wooden 



72 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

fish-heads, and prostrations in an atmosphere heavy 
with pent-up smoke, are the prevailing impressions 
brought away by the visitor. 

7. The gods in whose honor this worship is per- 
formed are too numerous to name, since Chinese 
Buddhism has adopted a most catholic pantheon of 
deities. Prominent among them are the Triad of 
Past, Present, and Future Buddhas, — known as the 
Three Precious Ones, — Amita and Kuan Yin. The 
latter, formerly considered a god, has for centuries 
been a goddess, and is the most common object of 
veneration among Chinese Buddhists. Her fuller 
name means '' the Sovereign who regards the prayers 
of the world,^^ and she is also known as the '^ most 
merciful, most compassionate.^^ She is a Buddhist 
Saviour who can rescue from earthly ills and demoni- 
acal hosts every sort and condition of men, from the 
lunatic, whose prayer makes him sane, to the wisest 
mandarin of the Empire. ^'^ Great Mercy, Great 
Pity, save from misery, save from evil — broad, great, 
efficacious, responsive Kuan Yin Buddha, ^^ is a cry 
that penetrates the throne room on the Isle of P'^u 
T^o and moves the heart of the Queen of Heaven. 
^^ The Giving Sons Kuan Yin,^^ resembling most 
strikingly the image of the '^ Madonna and Ghild,^^ 
and two other metamorphoses of her are all greatly 
reverenced. 

Associated with Kuan Yin in worship is Amitabha, 
Amita, or O-mi-t^o, as he is called in Chinese. He 
is the Buddha of ^^ Boundless Light, ^^ so called be- 
cause ^' his brightness is boundless, and he can illu- 
mine all kingdoms. His life, boundless and shoreless, 
extends through many kalpas.^^ His chief value in 
Chinese eyes lies in the fact of his being the ^^ guid- 
ing Buddha, ^^ who directs his worshippers to the 
greatly desired Western Paradise. Pronounce his 
magic name as many times as possible in one breath, 
and some 25,000 times a day, concentrate the thought 
on Amita like a thread running through beads, call 
on his name for seven days with fixed heart, and at 



RELIGIONS OF THE CHINESE 73 

death Amita with his holy throng will appear before 
you ; your heart will not be turned upside down, but, 
as candidate for the lily-birth, you will be born in the 
Pure Land. 

Chinese Geomancy. — This is known as feng- 
shui — literally wind and water — and is everywhere a 
powerful factor in Chinese life. While it may owe 
most to the Taoists for its development, it is the 
product of superstition-mongers of all the sects. 
Though founded on one of the most ancient Classics, 
the Yi Ching, it became systematized only in the 
twelfth century ; yet in seven hundred years it has 
become " one of the most gigantic systems of delusion 
that ever gained prevalence among men.^^ 

1. The original objects of care giving rise to the 
systems were the spirits of departed ancestors. Made 
powerful by the act of death, their mediatorship was 
greatly sought by the living. Naturally their sepul- 
chre-home was of great importance, and only ^^wind 
and water doctors ^^ could properly locate this. 

Later, however, the sites of houses, shops, pagodas, 
and cities came to be determined by these doctors, 
and their science broadened out until it included 
^^ cosmogony, natural philosophy, spiritualism, and 
biology, so far as they have these sciences/^ 

2. Spirits of the dead are but media through 
whom survivors can influence the real poioer, which is 
nature. Nature is regarded as a living organism, 
over which hover invisible hosts of malignant beings 
that need to be propitiated. '^ If a tomb is placed so 
that the spirit dwelling therein is comfortable, the 
inference is that the deceased will grant those who 
supply its wants all that the spirit world can grant. 
A tomb located where no star on high or dragon be- 
low, no breath of nature or malign configuration of 
hills, can disturb the peace of the dead, must there- 
fore be lucky, and worth great effort to secure.''^ 

3. ^^ T\iQ principles of geomancy depend much on two 
supposed currents running through the earth, known 
as the dragon and the tiger ; a propitious site has 



74 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

these on its left and right. A skilful observer can 
detect and describe them, with the help of the com- 
pass, direction of the water-courses, shapes of the 
male and female ground and their proportions, color 
of the soil, and the permutation of the elements/^ 

4. Evidences of the poiccr of this system are seen 
almost everywhere. Graves with their armchair con- 
figuration in the south, crooked streets, blank walls 
and screens to prevent spirits from gaining impetus 
through rectilinear motion, pagodas and temples 
erected to improve f eng-shui, the location of Peking 
and of the mausolea of grandees and emperors, theo- 
ries about the height of new buildings near older ones, 
hostility to two-storied houses of foreigners and spires 
of Christian churches, and the prevalent dread of 
telegraphs, railroads, and mines, so fearfully inimical 
to good luck — these are a few samples of many. In 
a word, the universal fear of bad feng-shui is ex- 
pressed in their proverb, ^^ A real man would rather 
die than to have his eyebrows inverted, ^^ i.e., lose his 
luck. And the key to this most enthralling system 
of superstition is held in the itching palm of the 
crafty geomancer^ usually of Buddhistic or Taoist 
faith. 



PEEPARATION AKD BEGIl^NINGS 

Before considering the work of modern missions 
in the Empire, it will be well to note those movements 
that have been in a sense a preparation for the com- 
ing of the present-day missionary. 

Ancient Moral and Religious Conditions. — 
Those already described have had their value in the 
way of indicating China^s need. Confucianism had 
given to her a code of ethics second only to the Chris- 
tian system in the opinion of many. There was also 
embedded in its ancient records, like a fly in amber, 
intimations of a Supreme Being who ruled in the 
affairs of men. When Buddhism in our first century 
had crystallized the cloudlike metaphysics and alche- 
mistic vaporings of Taoism into a religion, a change 
in emphasis as to the ground of virtue appeared. 
Eight for right^s sake and filial piety were still be- 
lieved in, but the Taoist said, ^^ There are in heaven 
and on earth spirits whose duty it is to search out the 
faults of men, and who, according to the lightness or 
gravity of their offences, reduce the length of their 
lives by periods of a hundred days.**^ Eetribution and 
ever-present spirits thus filled the thought of the 
duty-doer. Buddhism brought to China the empha- 
sis of suffering and its alleviation, its doctrine of 
Karma which could be accumulated merit, and the 
sunset glory of its Western Paradise. The loveliness 
of the unselfish life, the hideous lineaments of lust 
and passion, arch-enemies of the human race, and 
the reality of the invisible spiritual world, which 
might be one's own possession, were also Indians gift 
to China. 

75 



76 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

The Secret Sects. — 1. But another source has 
been experimentally proven more truly preparatory to 
the reception of the gospel message than the best ele- 
ments in the established faiths. This is found in the 
beliefs held by many of the proscribed and hence secret 
sects. These tenets have proven helpful, not so much 
because they are wholly new — since most of their doc- 
trines are a composite of views already current in the 
Empire — but because the holders of these doctrines 
are such from conviction and so are prepared to endure 
much hardship in consequence, while believers in or- 
thodox views are usually mere formalists of jellyfish 
character. Their number and distribution — it is esti- 
mated that there are from 20,000 to 200,000 sect mem- 
bers in each province — are also a source of strength to 
the Christian movement in that everywhere are found 
men who have the courage of their convictions, though 
they are not the views of their neighbors, an oiject 
lesson of the greatest value to the would-be Christian. 

2. As to the doctrines taught by these sects, some 
societies exist for the propagation of political theories, 
often of a revolutionary character ; others propitiate 
evil powers, and others still hold the symbols of re- 
production in reverence, as in India. Most of them, 
happily, are mainly moral and religious. Thus the 
Tsai-li Society is one of the most extensive temper- 
ance organizations in the world, its members pledging 
themselves to abstain from gambling, tobacco, wine, 
and opium, and carrying on a crusade against these 
evils by means of most realistic representations, 
through clay figures clothed in rags, of the evils of 
intemperance. Several sects advocate vegetarianism 
^* as a means of rectifying the heart, accumulating 
merit, avoiding calamities in this life and retributive 
pains in the next.^^ Another sect ^* tries to persuade 
men to be chaste, to eliminate all passion, and by 
meditation and study to attain a state of perfect 
repose and self-control, so that every impulse may 
be followed without the least risk of falling into sin.-^^ 
The duty of maintaining a patient spirit under injury 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 77 

and of meeting reviling with silence is the chief teach- 
ing of another society. Many a sect member is seen 
who is really seeking truth and trying to relieve needy 
and suffering neighbors. The Chin-tan Chiao, or 
Pill of Immortality Sect, which in 1891 lost 15,000 
members through the false charge of being rebels, 
uses terms and prayers that are essentially Christian, 
and many of its membership declare after joining the 
Christian Church that Chin-tan doctrines closely re- 
semble those of Christianity. 

3. Mr. James, a Shanting missionary, who has 
made a special study of the secret sects, thus testifies 
to the character of sect converts : '^ Some of the best 
and most consistent Christians I know were once the 
devoted followers of these societies. And in spite of 
all the suspicion cast on them by the officials, and the 
fact that numbers of their leaders and adherents have 
been punished for seditious practices, it is certain that 
a large number, perhaps a majority of the most 
thoughtful, decent, and earnest seekers after God are 
contained in these sects. With such people it is no 
political matter, but a strenuous endeavor to do the 
utmost in their power to eradicate sinful habits, to 
do good, obtain rest for their souls, and immortal life.'"' 

The Jews in China. — Turning from these dim 
gropings after God, one would expect to find in 
Judaism and Mohammedanism, with their doctrine 
of the true God, a more helpful element in preparing 
the Chinese mind for Christian teachings. It is a 
question, however, whether this is so. The Jewish 
leaven has been too small to affect the populous lump, 
while Mohammedans bring reproach by their lax 
morality on the God whom they worship. 

1. Formerly the Jetvs called their faith the Eeligion 
of India, in allusion. Dr. Martin thinks, to the prin- 
cipal land of their sojourn on their way to China ; 
later they were known by their heathen neighbors as 
the T'iao-chin Chiao, or Sinew Picking Sect, since 
they pick out the sinews from the flesh before eating 
(Gen. xxxii. 32). 



78 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

On a stone in K^ai-f eng Fu, the capital of Ho-nan, 
are inscribed these salient facts of their history : 
" With respect to the religion of Israel, we find that 
our first ancestor was Adam. The founder of the 
religion was Abraham ; then came Moses/who estab- 
lished the Law and handed down the Sacred Writings. 
During the dynasty of Han [b.c. 206-a.d. 264] this 
religion entered China. In the second year of Hsiao 
Tsung of the Sung dynasty [a.d. 13 64], a synagogue 
was erected in K^ai-feng Fu. Those who attempt 
to represent God by images or pictures do but vainly 
occupy themselves with empty forms. Those who 
honor and obey the Sacred Writings know the origin 
of all things ; and eternal reason and the Sacred 
Writings mutually sustain each other in testifying 
whence men derived their being. All those who pro- 
fess this religion aim at the practice of goodness and 
avoid the commission of vice.^^ This stone of witness 
makes no mention of any great influence exerted by 
their race in China, though in the fourteenth century 
they appear to have been quite numerous and to have 
been scattered over the northern portion of the Em- 
pire. A Russian author. Professor VasiFev, claims 
that ^^they held employments under the Government 
and were in possession of large estates, but by the 
close of the seventeenth century a great part of them 
had been converted to Islam. ^^ 

3. Their present condition is pitiable. A mere 
remnant confined to K^ai-feng Fu apparently, in 
numbers less than 400 in all, unable to read the 
Hebrew of their ancient scrolls, their synagogue in 
ruins and the religious assembly given up, and cir- 
cumcision among the younger generation no longer 
performed. Dr. Martinis words fitly describe their 

S resent prospects : ^"^ A rock rent from the sides of 
Count Zion by some great national catastrophe, and 
projected into the central plain of China, it has stood 
there while the centuries rolled by, sublime in its 
antiquity and solitude. It is now on the verge of be- 
ing swallowed up by the flood of paganism, and the 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 



spectacle is a mournful one. The Jews themselves 
are deeply conscious of their sad situation, and the 
ohadow of an inevitable destiny seems to be resting 
upon them/^ 

Chinese Mohammedanism. — The Hui-hui 
Ohiao, as Chinese Mohammedans call themselves, 
variously explain the character Tiui, Professor Ar- 
nold's belief is that as it may mean either '^ return '^ 
or ^^ submission/'^ their name signifies ^^a return to 
God by the straight path, and submission to the will 
of the Almighty/' A Chinese Mohammedan author 
holds that it is '' once '' twice repeated, men being 
born once and dying once, and that no doctrine is of 
importance that does not deal with the Two Ways of 
Birth and Death. Dr. Edkins, on the other hand, 
makes it merely the representation by Chinese char- 
acters of a Turkish race-name applied to tribes in 
Kashgar. 

1. Their entrance into China was by caravans in 
the north and by sea from the south. The first 
mosque in North China was built in 742 at Hsi-an 
Fu, Shen-hsi. Making its way into Kan-su, a khan 
was converted about the middle of the tenth century, 
and endeavored to force all his subjects to become 
believers. Later, Mongol conquests resulted in " a 
vast immigration of Mussulmans, Syrians, Arabs, Per- 
sians, and others into the Chinese Empire. . . . 
A great number of them settled in the country, and 
developed into a populous and flourishing community, 
gradually losing their racial peculiarities by their 
marriage with Chinese women."" 

Their traditions say that they first came to Canton 
in the sixth year of the Hegira, a.d. 628 — known 
as the Year of Missions — under the leadership of a 
maternal uncle of Mohammed, whose tomb is still an 
object of reverence for all Chinese Moslems. In 758 
there were added to their number 4,000 Arab soldiers 
who came, like the Manchus, to assist in quelling re- 
bellion, and who, like them, declined to withdraw 
after it was accomplished. This and the immigra- 



8o DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

tion under the Mongols are the only large accessions 
coming in from without. 

2, Their increase to some thirty millions — M. de 
Thiersant's estimate, based on data furnished some 
twenty years ago by Chinese officials, was twenty mil- 
lions for the Empire, while Dr. Jessup's estimate of 
four millions is evidently too low — is a matter of in- 
terest to the missionary. If this is the only result of 
twelve centuries of propagandism within the Empire, 
can Christianity expect any greater conquests ? 

Their growth in numbers is not due to any such 
missionary zeal as was displayed by the Buddhists or 
by Protestant missions, for very little of it has ever 
been shown. It has rather resulted from natural in- 
crease of the Mohammedan section of the population, 
aided by compromise in objectionable religious views, 
the purchase of children of poor parents in time of 
famine, and the instruction of even the humblest by 
means of metrical primers in Islamic doctrine. That 
this growth would have been still larger had they not 
been proverbially rebellious, and so subject to constant 
decimation — the Panthay rebellion of 1855-74 re- 
sulted in the death of more than two millions of their 
number — is perfectly evident. With more than half 
the population of Kan-su and Yiin-nan Mohammedan, 
one can see the possibilities of even a false faith. 

3. The present status and practices of Mohamme- 
danism will also help to account for its slow increase. 
Moslems go by the appellation ^^ Mohammedan 
thieves, ^^ are regarded by the people as responsible for 
most of the counterfeiting, and are in demand when a 
deed of blood, such as slaughtering animals or execut- 
ing criminals, is to be done. '^ The Chinese recognize 
in their physiognomy, especially in the nose, a proof of 
the violent temper popularly ascribed to them. Jests 
at their expense are common,^'' and the proverb runs, 
^^I said Mohammedans are thieves, but according to 
you they are dogs.^' So far as the literati are con- 
cerned, their rigid rule that the Koran must not be 
translated has kept it from being known to scholars. 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 8 1 

even to those of their own faith. The prohibition of 
the flesh of '^ the black beast " is a serious one to a peo- 
ple who^ in many cases, must eat pork or refrain from 
meat altogether, while the inhibition of wine is not 
relished by a temperate people who wish to imbibe on 
important occasions. 

4. Yet this faith is not without its advantage to 
the Christian missionary. The two great features of 
Mohammedanism, its proclamation of the one true 
God and its denunciation of idolatry, have come to 
the ears of many in the Mohammedan provinces of 
the north, northwest, south, and southwest. The 
nominal observance of Friday as worship-day and 
the use of certain theological terms have imparted an 
inkling of Christian life and truth to other few of the 
people. Yet when all has been said, most mission- 
aries of Mohammedan experience would probably pre- 
fer to work in a field where they are not found. 

Nestorian Christianity. — Though its entrance 
into the Empire probably antedates that of Moham- 
medanism, it has been reserved until now because of 
its higher teachings. 

1. Traditions of some importance assert that ^^ the 
Christian faith was carried to China, if not by the 
apostle Thomas, by the first teachers of Christian- 
ity.''^ As early as 300 a.d., Arnobius speaks of the 
Christian deeds done among the Seres. The heretical 
leader, Mani, also very probably visited the country 
in the third century. 

Yet the entrance of the Nestorians, as early as 505 
A.D. perhaps, constitutes the first Chinese Christian 
movement of which we possess certain and compar- 
atively full evidence. Driven out of the Koman Em- 
pire, Nestorian monks penetrated into western China 
and thence spread eastward to the ocean. 

2. Built into a brick wall, where it had once stood, 
outside of the ancient capital of Hsi-an Fu, Shen-hsi 
is the oldest Christian monument in the Empire, and 
perhaps the most ancient one in all Asia, the birth- 
continent of our faith. A fierce controversy has been 

6 



82 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

waged about that tablet since its discovery in 1625, 
but the general opinion is that it is a genuine record 
of the Nestorian Church, dating from the T^ang 
dynasty and the year 781 a.d. 

From its florid and genuinely Chinese periods one 
can gather these apparent facts concerning the liey- 
day of Chinese Nestorianism, The most virtuous 
Olopun came from Syria, and after ^' beholding the 
direction of the wind he braved diflBculties and dan- 
gers/^ arriving in the Empire a.d. 635. The illus- 
trious T'^ai Tsung, who then occupied the throne, 
conducted his guest into the interior, ^^the sacred 
books were translated in the imperial library, the 
sovereign investigated the subject in his private apart- 
ments ; when, becoming deeply impressed with the 
rectitude and truth of the religion, he gave special 
orders for its dissemination.^^ If the record can be 
believed, later emperors favored the new faith and 
caused Illustrious Churclies to be erected in every 
province. '' While this doctrine pervaded every 
channel, the State became enriched and tranquillity 
abounded. Every city was full of churches and the 
royal family enjoyed lustre and happiness. ''^ The 
machinations of opposing Buddhists seem to have 
come to naught, and the faith spread in spite of all 
opposition. 

3. If the Nestorian monument truly reflects the 
doctrines taught, China must have been much bene- 
fited, though in their enunciation there is an evident 
accommodation to Chinese beliefs. The great truths 
of Christianity, with the exception of the Crucifixion 
and the Atonement, were proclaimed, and the Em- 
peror T'^ai Tsung himself, on the Incarnation day, is 
said to have '' bestowed celestial incense and ordered 
the performance of a service of merit. ^^ Better still, 
the lives of the propagators of the Illustrious Eeligion, 
as Nestorianism was called, were apparently consistent 
with their assertion, ^^Now without holy men prin- 
ciples cannot become expanded ; without principles 
holy men cannot become magnified ; but with holy 



FREFARA TION AND BEGINNINGS 83 

men and right principles, united as the two parts of 
a signet, the world becomes civilized and enlightened/^ , 

4. Later Nestorianism in China ill deserved the 
name of Illustrious Eeligion. An imperial edict of 
the year 845 commands 3,000 of its priests to retire 
to private life, while Arabian travellers, a century 
later, report the death of many Christians in the siege 
of Canfu. Marco Polo speaks of them as being both 
numerous and respected in the thirteenth century. 
Barring that ignis fatuus of mediseval history, 
Prester John, who bears many Nestorian features, 
and who was the fabled Christian priest-king of Asia, 
the Nestorian faith can boast of nothing in later cen- 
turies. They ^^ suffered much, but maintained a 
precarious footing in China during the time of the 
Yiian dynasty, having been cut off from all help and 
intercourse from the mother Church since the rise of 
the Moslems. They had ceased long before this pe- 
riod to maintain the purity of the faith, however, 
and had apparently done nothing to teach and diffuse 
the Bible, which the tablet intimates was in part or in 
whole translated by Olopun, under the Emperor^s 
auspices/^ To-day Nestorian churches, books, and 
Christians are no longer to be found in China, and 
even the noble monument of those apostles of an 
earlier and purer faith was found in 1893 to be laid 
low, and part of the inscription was defaced, the work 
of malicious hands, apparently. 

5. The Christian Church in China may perhaps owe 
to Nestorianism its first translation of the Word of 
God, though it has long since perished. It certainly 
has conferred upon the Church these benefits. One 
appeals to the Chinese because of its antiquity, viz., 
the historic testimony concerning the early introduc- 
tion of Christianity into the Empire. A rubbing of 
the Nestorian tablet, or a reduced photograph of the 
same hung in Christian chapels and explained to the 
people, would do much to remove the charge of its 
being a novel and strange doctrine recently foisted 
upon a credulous few by designing f oieigners. Ttia 



84 DAPVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

inscription, with a copy of the contemporaneous edict 
of their famous T^ai Tsung, quoted from on the mon- 
ument, is a witness from the past of the utmost value 
to men who almost worship antiquity. A second ben- 
efit coming to the Chinese Church from the vanished 
glory of the Illustrious Keligion is the warning against 
compromise, which is the apparent secret of its utter 
decay. As Dr. George Smith has said of Indian Nes- 
torianism : ^^Nestorius is the representative of those 
who preach a Christ less than divine, and who have, 
therefore, ever failed to convert mankind. . . . 
This fact of compromise must be remembered when 
we proceed to look at the otherwise bright missionary 
progress of Nestorian Christianity in Asia, central, 
east, and south. ^^ The third one is also a word of 
warning. Their aim seemed to be to gain first the 
rulers of the land, and they boasted much of imperial 
favor, while little was said of work among the com- 
mon people. This reversal of Christ^s law, *^^To the 
poor the gospel is preached,^'' may largely account for 
their ultimate failure. 

A further possible benefit conferred by this faith is 
found in the suggestion that the creeds of Christian 
truth taught by men of the secret sects may have 
been derived from Nestorian teaching. Though not 
proven, it is possible that Christian phrases, used by 
certain of the sects, and fragments of Nestorian 
prayers, are to-day being uttered in secret by their 
members in many a city and province of China, thus 
perpetuating the real life of these ancient Chinese 
Christians, long after their Church has perished. 

Catholicism's First Stadium in China. — 1. 
Eome^s first great apostle to the Chinese was Jolin of 
MontecorvinOf who arrived in India in 1291, preached 
there successfully for a year, and thence proceeded 
with a caravan to the court of Kublai Khan. In 
spite of Nestorian opposition he had, at the expira- 
tion of eleven years, a baptized following of nearly 
6,000 persons, a church at Peking with ^^ a steeple 
and belfry with three bells that were rung every hour 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 85 

to summon the new converts to prayer/^ and he had 
bought one hundred and fifty children^ whom he in- 
structed in Greek and Latin and composed for them 
several devotional books. The story of his missionary 
life he thus gave : ^^ It is now twelve years since I 
have heard any news from the West. I am become 
old and grayheaded, but it is rather through labors 
and tribulations than through age, for I am only fifty- 
eight years old. I have learned the Tartar language 
and literature, into which I have translated the whole 
N"ew Testament and the Psalms of David, and have 
caused them to be transcribed with the utmost care. 
I write and read and preach openly and freely the 
testimony of the law of Christ.''^ If Catholic his- 
torians truly depict this hero of the faith, one can 
well believe that at his death in 1328, " after having 
converted more than 30,000 infidels, ^^ ^^all the in- 
habitants of Cambaluc [Peking], without distinction, 
mourned for the man of God, and both Christians 
and Pagans were present at the funeral ceremonies, 
the latter rending their garments in token of grief. ^^ 

2. The labors of Ids successor, Nicholas, and his 
twenty-four Franciscan assistants seem to have been 
almost wholly for the Mongol tribes instead of for the 
Chinese, over whom the Mongol emperors ruled. If 
this is correct, it largely accounts for the fact that 
after the overthrow of the Mongols by the Ming dy- 
nasty, both Nestorians and Catholics sink out of 
sight, having, it is supposed, ^* lapsed into ignorance 
and thence easily into Mohammedanism and Bud- 
dhism.^' The Pope's order to have ^^the mysteries of 
the Bible represented by pictures in all the churches, 
for the purpose of captivating the barbarians,^' may 
have served a temporary purpose, but such thin soil 
was incapable of supporting the plant after the fierce 
sun of persecution arose upon it. 

3. As one roams over the Mongolian plateau and 
sees everywhere evidence of the mighty grasp of Ti- 
betan Buddhism, which holds in its sway not only the 
oldest son of each family as a priest of Buddha, but 



86 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

which dominates every member of the family as well, 
one cannot but mourn over a possible '' it might have 
been'' of Christian history. Professor Douglas, in 
writing of Kublai Khan, says : ^^Had his endeavor to 
procure European priests for the instruction of his 
people, of which we know through Marco Polo, pros- 
pered, the Eoman Catholic Church, which did gain 
some ground under his successors, might have taken 
stronger root in China. Failing this momentary ef- 
fort, Kublai probably saw in the organized force of 
Tibetan Buddhismthereadiest instrument in the civ- 
ilization of his countrymen, and that system received 
his special countenance.^'' A similar crisis now con- 
fronts Protestant Christianity. Is the future historian 
to write against her fair name a similar charge ? 

The Second Catholic Entrance. — After Xavier, 
the St. Paul of Roman missionaries, had fallen on 
sleep beside the sleepless China Sea, his successor, 
Yalignani, exclaimed in sadness as he gazed on the 
mountains of China, '^ 0, mighty fortress ! when shall 
these impenetrable brazen gates of thine be broken 
through ? '' The key to those gates was placed in the 
hands of the Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, and they 
were unlocked and stood ajar until one hundred and 
fifty years later, when the decree of the Emperor 
Yung Cheng closed them again. 

1. The hero of the first part of this period was a 
man who stands foremost among Catholic mission- 
aries ^^for skill, perseverance, learning, and tact.-"^ 
Ricci came first to the Portuguese settlement of Ma- 
cao, but soon gained entrance to China itself by a 
proceeding characteristic of the man and of Rome^s 
methods in the Empire. He and his companion ap- 
plied to the Governor of Kuang-tung for permission 
to build on the mainland, since ^^ they had at last as- 
certained with their own eyes that the Celestial Em- 
pire was even superior to its brilliant renown. They 
therefore desired to end their days in it, and wished 
to obtain a little land to construct a house and a 
church where they might pass their time in prayer 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 87 

and study-;, in solitude and meditation/^ With sim- 
ilar duplicity he posed in turn as Buddhist priest, as 
scholar, as philosopher, and as official, as seemed 
most expedient, but always with his eyes fixed on 
Peking and the occupant of the Dragon Throne. His 
indomitable energy finally brought him within Pe- 
king's tunnel -like portals on July 4, 1601. Once in 
the capital, his learning, pleasing manners, and ju- 
dicious distribution of presents gained him favor 
among those in authority and won for the Church 
many adherents. 

His extremely busy life in Peking was filled with 
manifold labors. Visitors, who were never turned 
away, and new converts who were to be warmly wel- 
comed, thronged his residence. As head of the China 
mission with its four stations, an exhausting corre- 
spondence must be carried on. His relation to the 
Court and high officials and scholars entailed a griev- 
ous burden upon him. A still more trying ordeal was 
the correspondence arising from inquiries coming 
from all parts of the Empire concerning the doctrines 
taught by him and the books which he had published. 

His literary labors were extremely important to the 
work. Rarely has a foreigner succeeded so well as he 
in clothing foreign and Christian ideas in so attractive 
a Chinese dress. In the topics chosen he also adapted 
himself to tho ■^'.aste of the literati. Themes such as 
Friendship, Years Past no Longer Ours, Man a So- 
journer on Earth, Advantage of Frequent Contem- 
plation of Eternity, Future Seward and Punishment, 
Prying into Futurity Hastens Calamity, etc., were 
pleasingly discussed. His Hsi-kuo Fa, or '^'^Art of 
Memory as Practiced in the West,'' was especially 
popular, the more so since Eicci was himself an ex- 
pert in mnemonics. A map of his, which was pre- 
pared on a peculiar projection to give the Chinese an 
idea that their land was indeed the middle kingdom, 
was widely used and did much to remove the disgust 
occasioned by ordinary maps in which China appears 
only as a little corner of the world. His religious 



88 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

writings^ the best of which is perhaps the '' Veritable 
Doctrine of the Lord of Heaven/' are not aggressively 
Christian, and naturally the doctrine of faith in 
Christ is but slightly touched upon, while he gives 
much space to parallels between Christianity and the 
teachings of Confucianism. 

Decisions as to certain questions, which were main- 
ly due to Ricci, kindled a fierce controversy which 
was waged for a century by the Jesuits and other 
Catholic orders. Colonel Yule thus summarizes them : 
^' The chief points of controversy were (1) the lawful- 
ness and expediency of certain terms employed by the 
Jesuits in naming God Almighty, such as T'ien, 
Heaven, and Shang Ti, Supreme Euler or Emperor, 
instead of T^ien Chu, Lord of Heaven, and in particu- 
lar the erection of inscribed tablets in the churches, 
on which these terms were made use of ; (2) in respect 
to the ceremonial offerings made in honor of Confu- 
cius and of personal ancestors, which Eicci had recog- 
nized as merely civil observances ; (3) the erection of 
tablets in honor of ancestors in private houses ; and (4), 
more generally, sanction and favor accorded to ancient 
Chinese sacred books and philosophical doctrine, as 
not really trespassing on Christian faith/' While 
Ricci and the other Jesuits favored compromise meas- 
ures, and consequently were supported by the Chinese 
and even the great Emperor K^ang Hsi, as well as by 
one of the popes, the other orders held to the Chris- 
tian view of allegiance to truth rather than to expe- 
diency, and with the support of another papal de- 
cree, their views finally prevailed. 

Catholic writers, usually his opposers, have given 
Ricci rather a hard character. One can agree with 
them when they write : '^ Being more a politician than 
a theologian, he discovered the secret of remaining 
peacefully in China. The kings found in him a man 
full of complaisance ; the pagans, a minister who ac- 
commodated himself to their superstitions ; the man- 
darins, a polite courtier skilled in all the trickery of 
courts/' An impartial student of his life would 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 89 

hardly venture to assent, however, to their assertion 
that he was a faithful servant of the devil, " who, 
far from destroying, established his reign among the 
heathen, and even extended it to the Christians/' 

2. Later Catholic leaders of this early period were 
men of great ability, though less open to criticism 
than the crafty Ricci. The talented and learned Ger- 
man Jesuit, Schall, at one time tutor of the Emperor 
K^ang Hsi ; Faber, the miracle-working saint of Shen- 
hsi, and Verbiest, of whom a competent witness says, 
^^ No foreigner has ever enjoyed so great power and 
confidence from the rulers of China as this priest, ^^ 
were men who did much for China as well as for their 
Church. 

But worldly favor speedily changes its '' Hosanna ! '^ 
to '^ Crucify him ! ^^ and Catholicism gradually be- 
came much hampered in its toork. Persecution in 
the provinces affected both missionary and convert ; 
and though at court Catholic scholars were tolerated, 
it was mainly because of their secular services as as- 
tronomers, scientists, surveyors of the Empire, etc., 
that they were held in esteem. Finally, the rivalries 
and opposition of popes and priests to one another, 
and to the opinion of K^ang Hsi caused Yung Cheng 
to issue his order of 1724, strictly prohibiting the 
propagation of the T^ien Chu Chiao, or Lord of 
Heaven Sect. 

3. A period of eclipse followed, which practically 
lasted until the treaties of 1858 inaugurated a new 
era. During these thirteen decades persecution, ex- 
ile, imprisonment, and death were common experi- 
ences, and some of the most heroic and devoted deeds 
are recorded of both missionaries and their converts. 
At risk of life converts stood by the Church and its 
leaders in a way that is a prophecy full of hope for 
the time when the Protestant Church shall be sub- 
jected to similar trials. In spite of all opposition 
400,000 converts were enrolled in the Church in 1846 
and eighty foreign missionaries ministered to their 
scattered flocks. 



90 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

4. Since 1868 Catholic missions have prospered. 
Old occasions of much friction have been removed by 
the apportionment of the different orders to sections 
by themselves, so that Jesuit and Dominican no longer 
need war each upon the other. Diplomacy of Euro- 
pean Catholic powers has by means not always be- 
yond criticism gained for Catholicism — and hence, by 
the ^' most favored nation clause/^ for Protestants 
also — toleration and protection. Church property, 
practically sequestered during the decades of eclipse, 
has been again restored, often with most astonishing 
and dubious enlargement, and lay brothers of keen 
business instincts have dealt in property desired by 
foreigners in a way that renders some missions self- 
supporting. Imposing churches have been built, in 
one case with a roof of imperial tiles surreptitiously 
secured and painted, so that their real character would 
become only slowly apparent, and progress is evident 
all along the line. 

5. A word about Catliolic methods must suffice. 
From the outset they have sought to adapt them- 
selves to the people and to the popular need. If 
curiosity filled the mind of officials and the Court, 
curious clocks and other Western novelties were used. 
Science being demanded, they were mathematicians, 
surveyors, and astronomers. They may have gone too 
far in becoming all things to all men, but their idea 
is worthy of careful consideration in our day of na- 
tional transformation and new needs. 

Practical charity has never been forgotten, and the 
labors of a consecrated company of Sisters of Charity 
must not be forgotten. Orphan asylums and the work 
of teaching girls those arts which are needed in the 
Christian home, as well as branches of learning that 
will be useful, have been of great value to the Church. 

The native convert has not been forgotten in his re- 
lation to his family and the native Church. The rais- 
ing of European vegetables, and arts, such as those of 
watch-repairing, electro-plating, etc., have been taught 
by the missionaries, thus enabling converts to be self- 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS QI 

supporting. Tidiness and self-respect, as well as de- 
votion to the Church, are assiduously inculcated. 

Nor is the convert^s usefulness to the Church forgot- 
ten. From the day that the noble Hsu and his daugh- 
ter Candida were won by Ricci to the present time, 
they have been used. While few have approached 
the usefulness of Candida, who built ^^thirty-nine 
churches in different provinces and printed 130 
Christian books for her countrymen, ^^ as well as set 
blind story-tellers at work telling the Gospel story, 
they have been used by the priests for the good of 
Mother Church in many ways. 

Other features have not been so praiseworthy. 
Thus one cannot rejoice with the many Catholic writ- 
ers who have told of the great accessions, won by 
women mainly, who figure as amateur doctors and 
visit homes where children lie at the point of death, 
and who, hj ihi^ pieuse ruse, baptize ^^ seven or eight 
thousand infants every year.^^ Nor can one approve 
of the activity of the foreign priests in supporting 
converts who have law-suits, though this practice se- 
cures many accessions. 

Pere Eipa has brought against his missionary Ireth- 
ren charges that still largely lay at their door. He 
accounts for their lack of wide influence by their 
feeble attempts to gain an accurate use of the lan- 
guage, their imitation of officials in their dress, their 
mode of travel, their haughty isolation from the 
common people, and their relegation of preaching and 
the main care of converts to the native catechists. 

6. Catholicism's relation to Protestant missionaries 
and their work is a blot on the name of the Church, 
from which one would gladly turn away. Until com- 
paratively recently their policy was simply that of 
*net alone,^^ but at present it is quite otherwise. Be- 
ginning first as a system of proselyting among Prot- 
estant Chinese, it has proceeded to most active op- 
position, amounting often to bitter persecution of 
Chinese Christians. Being fearless of law-suits be- 
cause of Catholic protection, and unscrupulous as to 



92 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

method if only the Church is the gainer, they have 
repeatedly attempted to blot out weak Protestant com- 
munities. While this has been mainly confined to 
three or four provinces, and has probably been little 
encouraged by the missionaries themselves, the evil is 
a growing one, and must be reckoned with in fore- 
casting Protestantism's future in China. It should 
be added that most of the criticisms of missions made 
by the Chinese and by anti-missionary foreigners, in- 
cluding nearly every item of any validity, are charge- 
able to the policy and work of Catholic missions, 
though these critics do not discriminate between 
Catholics and Protestants in their accusations. 

7. While it is believed that the above strictures 
would be agreed to by any impartial writer cognizant 
of the facts, the other side of the case should be borne 
in mind. Drs. Milne and Medhurst, early Protestant 
missionaries of catholicity and candor, thus testify to 
the merits of these first modern occupants of the 
field. 

Dr. Milne wrote : ^^ The learning, personal virt- 
ues, and ardent zeal of some of them, deserve to be 
imitated by all future missionaries ; will be equalled 
by few, and, perhai3s, rarely exceeded by any. Their 
steadfastness and triumph in the midst of persecu- 
tions, even to blood and death, in all imaginable 
forms, show that the questionable Christianity which 
they taught is to be ascribed to the effect of educa- 
tion, not design, and affords good reason to believe 
that they have long since joined the army of mar- 
tyrs, and are now wearing the crown of those who 
spared not their lives unto the death, but overcame 
by the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testi- 
mony. It is not to be doubted that many sinners 
were, through their labors, turned from sin to holi- 
ness, and they will finally have due praise from God 
as fellow-workers in His Kingdom. '^ 

Dr. Medhurst further testified : ^^ Some idea of 
their doctrines may be gathered from the books 
which they have published in the Chinese language. 



PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 93 

Many of these are written in a lucid and elegant 
style, and discuss the points at issue between Chris- 
tians and Confucians in a masterly and conclusive 
manner. Their doctrinal and devotional works are 
clear on the Trinity and the Incarnation, while the 
perfections of the Deity, the corruption of human 
nature, and redemption by Christ are fully stated ; 
and though some unscriptural notions are now and 
then introduced, yet, all things considered, it is 
quite possible for humble and patient learners to dis- 
cover by such teaching their sinful condition, and 
trace out the way of salvation through a Kedeemer. 
It must not be forgotten, also, that the Catholics 
translated the major part of the New Testament into 
Chinese, and though there is no evidence of its hav- 
ing been published, yet large portions of the gospels 
and epistles were inserted in the lessons printed for 
the congregations. As it regards the sciences, the 
Catholics have done much to develop them to the 
Chinese ; and a native who had been instructed by 
them lately published a treatise on astronomy and 
geography which has been highly esteemed and 
widely circulated. The Eomish missionaries have 
not been remiss in preparing works for the elucida- 
tion of the Chinese language to Europeans. ^^ He 
might also have added that nearly all of value that 
was known concerning China in the Occident until 
this century came from Catholic sources. 

With any disadvantage to the cause of Protestant 
missions arising from the presence of Catholic Chris- 
tians, it certainly means considerable for the King- 
dom of God that in sixteen of the provinces, includ- 
ing hostile Hu-nan, as well as in Manchuria and 
Mongolia, are European missionaries and Catholic 
converts, estimated to number in 1898 about one 
million. 

The Greek Church in China. — The bare fact 
only needs to be mentioned that this communion 
gained an entrance in 1685 into Peking, where it has 
since had its chief seat. A treaty made with Russia 



94 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

four years later permitted the establishment of a 
college for Greek priests. It has had some scholars 
of note, like the Archimandrite Palladius, but their 
literary work has been confined mainly to Chinese 
and Eussian, and so has done little for modern mis- 
sions. Considerable assistance has, however, been 
derived from their Chinese versions by Protestant 
Bible translators. In recent years this Church has 
again given itself with some earnestness, but with 
little success, to the gaining of converts. What 
effect the growing influence of Eussia will have upon 
their Church can only be surmised. 



VI 

THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATIOlSr OF CHIJTA 

All the religions moyements^ detailed in the pre- 
vious chapter, were to a greater or less degree pre- 
paratory for the work of Protestantism. Yet, as has 
been suggested, every one of them, the work of Eome 
not excepted, had also sown many tares in the field, 
which have proven a greater embarrassment in many 
cases than the good seed has been of help. The be- 
ginning of the Protestant enterprise was accordingly 
beset with difficulties. The edict of 1724 was still 
in force, and the few Catholic missionaries in the 
country were mainly in hiding. 

Protestantism's Pioneer. — Notwithstanding the 
extensive work of Catholicism in the Empire and its 
inculcation of most of the great truths of Eevela- 
tion. Dr. Williams, in his sketch of Kobert Morrison, 
regards him, rather than Eome, as having laid the 
foundations of the Church of Christ in China. 

1. This last and boot-tree maker of Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne journeyed from England to China via America, 
and during his early career lived with the Americans 
at Canton. Morrison had been planning to go to 
Timbuctoo, but in being sent to China God had an- 
swered his prayer that He '^ would station him in that 
part of the missionary field where the difficulties 
were the greatest, and, to all human appearance, the 
most insurmountable/' He arrived not only with a 
letter from our Secretary of State to the United 
States consul, but also with a preparation unusually 
complete for that day. He had whetted his memory 
to attack Chinese by a use of the 119th Psalm and 
other mnemonic tests, and had further prepared him- 

95 



96 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

self for his future field by the acquisition of a theo- 
logical education and a fair acquaintance with medi- 
cine and astronomy, and he had transcribed two 
manuscripts, one a Chinese translation of the New 
Testament as far as Hebrews — probably by a Catholic 
missionary — the other a Latin and Chinese diction- 
ary. He had also begun in London and continued 
on shipboard the study of the spoken language under 
a Cantonese teacher named Yang. 

2. His twenty-seven years of Chinese service are 
thus summarized in the inscription upon his tomb in 
the resting-place for the Protestant dead at Macao : 
^'^ Sacred to the memory of Kobert Morrison, D.D., 
the first Protestant missionary to China, where, after 
a service of twenty-seven years cheerfully spent in 
extending the Kingdom of the Blessed Kedeemer, 
during which period he compiled and published a 
Dictionary of the Chinese Language, founded the 
Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, and for several 
years labored alone on a Chinese version of the Holy 
Scriptures, which he was spared to see completed 
and widely circulated among those for whom it was 
destined, he sweetly slept in Jesus. He was born at 
Morpeth, in Northumberland, January 5, 1782, was 
sent to China by the London Missionary Society in 
1807, was for twenty-five years Chinese translator in 
the employ of the East India Company, and died at 
Canton August 1, 1834.'' 

One must read many things between the lines of 
this inscription. His service under the Company, 
besides being a necessity, if he would remain in the 
Empire instead of laboring on its fringe, as did his 
early associates, was also the means of securing a 
liberal salary with which he greatly aided other mis- 
sionary schemes, the Malacca Anglo-Chinese College 
in particular. The diflBculty of obtaining a teacher 
was so great that when he secured a Pekingese of the 
Catholic faith, this man carried about poison with 
which to commit suicide, if his countrymen detected 
him in his unlawful employment. Weary and as- 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA 97 

sidnons private labors secured Morrison his first con- 
vert^ Tsai Ako^ in 1814^ but as he was never suffered 
to preach in public^ he won only a few during his 
entire career. Schemes of various sorts, calculated 
to benefit foreigners and the Chinese, found in him 
their cordial supporter, though it must be confessed 
that a few of these were somewhat visionary. While 
Morrison possessed none of those charms which made 
Ricci so acceptable to the Chinese, unlike the latter, 
he never stooped to compromise, but laboriously laid 
those strong and deep foundations that have ever 
since characterized the work of Protestant missions. 
In a word, he was to China very much what Carey 
was to India. 

War and Missions. — The Protestant beginnings 
had been made, but missions at Morrison's death were 
greatly hampered. How were these restrictions to 
be removed ? The answer can partly be found in 
the Hebrew statement, " The Lord is a man of war," 
and though these wars were in some cases without 
justification, He caused good to spring from the evil 
doing of men. 

1. Tlie Opium War, as it is called, grew out of 
what the Chinese regarded as an undoubted right 
and duty, while the English could with some justice 
take the stringent measures employed by them. The 
destruction by the Chinese of 20,283 chests of opi- 
nm, brought to their shores in foreign bottoms, and 
their haughty and unwise conduct accompanying 
this action, led to a war lasting from July 5, 1841,. to 
September 15, 1842, when the Nanking treaty was 
ratified. 

While much can be said in defence of Britain^s 
action, and though Queen Victoria's order recites 
that ^^satisfaction and reparation for the late inju- 
rious proceedings of certain officers of the Emperor 
of China against certain of our officers and subjects 
shall be demanded of the Chinese Government," 
still, when the broad issue at stake is considered, 
which was the attempt by the Emperor to root out 



qS dawn on the hills of T'ANG 

a vice fatal to his people^ one can hardly escape the 
conviction that the war was at once ^"^ unjust ^^ and 
^^ immoral/' Whatever may be the reader's opinion^ 
the Chinese have always looked upon it as a stigma 
upon the British name and a valid objection against 
Christianity. 

The second article of the treaty granted the right 
of residence in Canton^ Amoy^ Fu-chow^ Ningpo^ 
and Shanghai — a right eagerly embraced by waiting- 
missionary boards — and Hongkong became British 
territory. Two years later France and America con- 
cluded treaties with China, which included the right 
to erect houses of worship in the ports. The French 
treaty led the way in procuring the revocation of the 
persecuting edicts of 1724 and later, and the issue of 
a decree of toleration. These provisions were partly 
a dead letter, however, until 1860. Dr. Williams says 
of the outcome of this war Avhich opened up part of 
China to the world: '^ Looked at in any point of view, 
political, commercial, moral, or intellectual, it will al- 
ways be considered as one of the turning-points in 
the history of mankind, involving the welfare of all 
nations in its wide-reaching consequences. ''^ 

2. Though missionaries could now enter strategic 
cities, it was reserved for a native rebellion to adver- 
tise in a general, though unfortunate way, the lead- 
ing features of Christianity. The leader of this T^ai 
P'ing — Great Peace — Rebellion was a student named 
Hung Hsiu-ch^uan, who had met Liang, one of 
Milne's converts, and read several tracts composed 
by that venerable Chinese Christian. These books, 
sickness and a series of cataleptic visions, and some 
instruction from missionaries, notably an American, 
I. J. Eoberts, finally resulted in Hung's beginning a 
quiet movement of instruction and religious reform. 
So large a following soon gathered about him that 
ambition was aroused and he headed a rebellion 
which rapidly spread until it had reached from the 
South to within little more than one hundred miles of 
Peking. Some of China's fairest provinces were laid 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA 99 

waste, for nearly fifteen years the evils of internal 
strife scourged the Empire, and fully 20,000,000 of 
Chinese perished. It was finally crushed out in 1865 
by the Imperialists, aided most powerfully by '' Chi- 
nese Gordon ^^ and his Ever Victorious Army, which 
owed its origin and early strength to an American 
named Ward. 

This rebellion will appear most significant when it 
is remembered that it was a movement managed by 
Chinese, the leaders of whom were the student. 
Hung, and two of his converts who were school- 
teachers. Its progress from 1844 to 1851 — when it 
became a rebellion — was promising for Christianity. 
Hung established communities called Churches of 
God. '' A strictly moral conduct and the keeping 
of the Sabbath were enjoined on the congregations ; 
all idolatrous practises and the use of opium were for- 
bidden ; proffers of union from leaders of the Great 
Triad Society, pledged to the restoration of a native 
Chinese dynasty, were rejected." As the movement 
which Hung and his followers, later called T^ien Kuo 
— Kingdom of Heaven — developed, however, its 
leader became emboldened, and gave forth revelations 
and decrees as from ^^the Heavenly Father ^^ and 
^'^the Heavenly Elder Brother. ^^ Gradually the proc- 
lamation of salvation by repentance and faith in 
Jesus, which had given his preaching such power at 
the first, was abandoned, and worldly ambition and 
blasphemy greatly increased. Were it not for this 
fact, the early religious organization of his army and 
kingdom would have done credit to Cromwell. While 
the T^ai P^ings are execrated for their deeds of 
blood, they carried throughout the eastern provinces 
Christian phrases and some corrupted Christian 
ideas. The rebellion had shown that a Christian 
basis could underlie a great movement, and it had 
brought China^s future great statesman, Li Hung- 
chang, into vital touch with the saintly Major Gor- 
don, whose influence upon him and other high offi- 
cials has never been forgotten. 



lOO DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

3. The second war with Great Britain occurred 
during the T'^ai P^ng Kebellion, and was known as 
the ^^ Arrotv War," because a lorcha bearing that 
name and flying the British flag — apparently unlaw- 
fully — had been seized by the Chinese and the flag 
hauled down. This conflict^ which began in 1857, 
when Canton was captured, Avas not finally concluded 
until in 1860 Avar was carried to the A^ery gates of 
Peking. The treaties, Avhich Avere then made with 
England, Russia, France, and the United States, 
permitted residence and trade in six additional cities 
in China and one in Sheng-ching. ^'^It conceded 
the right to traA^el with passports throughout the 
eighteen proAdnces, and contained also a special 
clause giving protection to foreigners and natives in 
the propagation and adoption of the Christian relig- 
ion. . . . The moral effect of this war was 
very great. The superiority of Western nations, at 
least in this one art, could no longer be questioned, 
and a much more favorable impression was made by 
the moderation, magnanimity, and clemency of the 
victors than by their military power. ^^ Previous to 
this time, William Burns Avas the only one who syste- 
matically disregarded the limitation of evangelization 
to the fiv^e ports ; henceforth every missionary was 
free to roam at will throughout the land. 

Missionary work could not be permanent if it 
could only be carried on through itineration, and ex- 
cept in the ports and at Peking this was all that the 
treaties allowed. The additional right of residence 
Avas gained through the French treaty, which, in 
Article VI. of the Chinese text, though not in the 
French original, which was the final authority, con- 
tained this provision : ^'^It is, in addition, permitted 
to French missionaries to rent and purchase land in 
all the provinces, and to erect buildings thereon at 
pleasure."^ Strange to say, the Chinese have never 
made serious objection to this most questionable 
piece of diplomacy, probably because the clause was 
in their own version of the treaty, and so was ac- 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA lOI 

cepted consciously by them. The advantage coming 
to French Catholic missionaries accrued as well to Prot- 
estant missionaries of other treaty-making Powers^ 
because of the clause extending to all Powers the ad- 
vantages granted to the most favored nation ; hence 
every missionary legally-possesses the right to secure 
residences and erect mission buildings where de- 
sired. 

A new obstacle to missions soon arose from the fact 
that it was understood that missionaries should first 
secure the consent of the officials before purchasing 
property^ and that often caused delay or failure. 
Though the French minister in 1865 obtained a con- 
vention making this permission unnecessary^ it was 
not until the French and United States ministers re- 
vived the clause thirty years later that it became 
practically operative. 

4. Wars and rumors of war have effected other 
helpful features in mission work. Thus the mas- 
sacre at Tientsin of twenty French and Kussian sub- 
jects in 1870^ largely as the result of fancied abuses 
in the orphanage of the Sisters of Charity, led to a 
concentration of the naval forces of the Powers in 
the North. War was finally averted, but it gave rise 
to the first Chinese state paper discussing the diffi- 
culties connected with Christian missions^ and some 
of the evils of Catholic mission policy were con- 
demned, with the result that the missionaries of that 
confession have partly given up their questionable 
practices. A further result of this threatened war 
was the use of unexpended military appropriations 
iu establishing the Chinese Educational Commission, 
under the leadership of a Chinese graduate of Yale, 
Yung Wing. Though the young men sent to America 
for education were recalled before they were fully 
prepared for national service, many bright students, 
some of whom are in influential positions in China 
to-day, have personal acquaintance with Christian 
institutions, and a few of them are earnest Chris- 
tians. 



102 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

The threatening attitude of Great Britain because 
of the murder of Margary in 1875 caused the officials 
to realize the sacredness of the individual life^ and 
most of them are anxious, as never before that event, 
to protect the missionaries from all violence. 

The French tear of 1883-85 in Tong-king and 
southern China did more than any other thing to 
cause the Chinese to distinguish between the Catho- 
lic missionaries and the Protestants, a distinction of 
great importance to Protestantism. 

Riots — more than a score of which have occurred 
in recent years, attended by the death of a few mis- 
sionaries — have so aroused foreign powers, that in- 
creasing vigilance is exercised in the official protec- 
tion of foreigners. Germany^s vigorous action in 
1897 because of the murder of German Catholic 
missionaries, and especially her seizure of Kiao-chou, 
only increases this solicitude for the missionary's 
safety. 

Stages of Missionary Progress. — While Chinese 
missionaries have never vitally depended upon the 
mailed hand of war to lead them into fields of useful- 
ness, their opj^ortunities and efficiency have, never- 
theless, very largely expanded with the power and 
influence of the secular arm. Hence epochs of mis- 
sionary progress correspond partially with the events 
just outlined. 

1. The first stage was preparatory in character, 
and extended from Morrison's arrival in 1807 to the 
Treaty of Nanking in 1842. 

Preparatory effoi^ts tuithin the Empire were these : 
The publication of a dictionary and grammar ; the 
translation of the entire Bible, published in 1818 ; 
the composition of several valuable tracts, notable 
among which is the very popular and useful one by 
Milne, entitled '^^The Two Friends'' ; the opening of 
China to medical missions by Dr. Peter Parker, who 
was her first great medical missionary ; the establish- 
ment of the American Board's Mission Press by S. 
Wells Williams ; and the founding of the Chinese 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA 103 

Repository, which to the present time, though under 
a different name, has done so much to acquaint the 
Christian world with China. 

Most of the workers during this period labored 
outside China Proper, in the Malay Peninsula and on 
adjacent islands, where Chinese colonists were found 
in great numbers, and where access to them was pos- 
sible. Preaching, tract and Scripture distribution, 
the preparation of books and periodicals in English 
and Chinese, and education, of a primary character 
mostly, though the Anglo-Chinese College, founded 
at Malacca in 1818, did excellent work, were the 
lines followed. Giitzlaff and Medhurst were espe- 
cially zealous in their efforts to distribute books and 
preach along the coast. The former reached Tien- 
tsin eyen, while Medhurst went as far as Shan-tung. 
Williams desired to enter Japan through some ship- 
wrecked Japanese. Though this was not possible, 
some of them were converted, and he prepared in 
their tongue a translation of Genesis and Matthew. 

By 1842 these results were evident : Three British 
societies and four American organizations had some 
twenty representatives in the Empire and in the 
Chinese colonies adjacent. Macao, Canton, Hong- 
kong and Amoy had had for a longer or shorter time 
resident missionaries, and six converts constituted 
the entire Protestant Chinese church. 

2. From 1842 to 1860 constitutes the years of en- 
trance, though very little could yet be done outside 
the treaty ports. 

The field of laior included the populous cities of 
Canton, Amoy, Fu-chou, Ningpo, and Shanghai. 
While the vices of the West came in with commerce, 
these cities were entrepots of extensive districts, and 
hence were strategic. Hongkong, being under Brit- 
ish control, was also a very important centre of mis- 
sionary effort at this time. 

The nature of the ivorlc was now somewhat broader. 
Revised translations of the Bible, and new and bet- 
ter Christian literature were steps forward. Though 



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I06 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

evangelization was nominally permitted, it was a 
difficult process. One of the missionaries. Dr. Ash- 
more, says of it : ^^ We were mobbed in the fu city, 
mobbed in the district cities, mobbed in the large 
towns. We got so used to being pelted Avith mud 
and gravel and bits of broken pottery that things 
seemed strange if we escaped the regular dose. 
. . . AVe went out from our homes bedewed with 
the tears and benedictions of dear ones, and we 
came back plastered over, metaphorically speaking, 
with curses and objurgations from top to bottom. 
. . . It went badly with our chapels that we 
rented. They were often assailed ; roofs were broken 
up, doors were battered in, and furniture was carried 
off. There was nothing else to do but to keep at it. 
Driven out of one place, we betook ourselves to an- 
other, according to instructions. But we did not 
leave the country as the literati desired, and we did 
not intend to. We wore them out, as an anvil some- 
times wears out a hammer.^'' 

Converts of such troublous times were naturally 
men of strong convictions, and though usually igno- 
rant, they bravely endured the anathemas and petty 
persecutions of neighbors and nearest friends. Iso- 
lated and ostracized, they clung with tenacious grip 
to the truth, and the grace of God did not fail them. 

The missio7iaries were for the same reason men 
and women of great strength of character, and were 
perforce of the heroic mould. During these years 
Protestantism's fiercest battles over the ^^ Term 
Question '^ were waged. In lieu of any clear concep- 
tion and name for God among the Chinese, the mis- 
sionaries, like the Eomanists of early days, strenu- 
ously advocated the use of v/hichever of the terms, 
Shang Ti, T^ien Chu, Shen, etc., seemed to them 
least open to objection and most honoring to Je- 
hovah. Though this controversy practically died 
away soon after, it is still a dangerous topic to intro- 
duce in a missionary gathering. 

Tangible results were not numerous. Though the 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA 107 

word of truth had sounded forth from the missionary 
centres into the four populous littoral provinces of 
Kuang-tung, Fu-chien^ Che-chiang, and Ohiang-su, 
and though the boards had increased from seven to 
nineteen^ with some 160 missionaries^ each of them 
could on an average point to only six converts as the 
reward of his self-denying toil. Judged by other 
than statistical standards, these years were very fruit- 
ful in many directions. 

3. Seventeen years intervened between 1860 and 
the first great missionary conference of China^ which 
met at Shanghai in 1877. They were years of devel- 
opment andivicler entrance into new fields. Carstairs 
Douglas could report at the conference that Chih-li^ 
Shan-tung, An-hui^ Chiang-hsi^ Hu-pei^ and Sheng- 
ching^ or Southern Manchuria^ had been occupied ; 
but of the nine provinces still unentered^ only the 
merest Protestant beginning had been made^ and dark- 
ness still reigned, except for the flickering and smok- 
ing lights of Catholicism. 

Some of the advances noted are the wide develop- 
ment of educational and medical work, the practical 
inauguration of woman^s work, which had only been 
begun in the previous period, the establishment of 
several strong churches in place of the isolation of 
believers in the earlier days, and above all the estab- 
lishment of the China Inland Mission in 1865. Its 
emphasis of inland occupation and new fields was of 
the utmost importance to the Empire, though natu- 
rally pioneering and evangelistic work are not statis- 
tically so successful as older and more diversified 
labors. 

Some of the statistics of the 1877 conference are 
worth repeating. Missionaries resided at ninety-one 
centres, had organized three hundred and twelve 
churches, and Chinese communicants numbered 13,- 
035. In all, twenty-nine societies — twelve American, 
fifteen British, and two Continental — were on the field, 
with four hundred and seventy-three missionaries, in- 
cluding seven unconnected. 



I08 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

4. Thirteen years more elapsed before the mis- 
sionaries again gathered at the Second Shanghai Con- 
ference of 1890. The communion of missionaries of 
different denominations and sections^ and the free in- 
terchange of views in 1877^ were most helpful. Two 
Jcey-words of that gathering were systematic co-opera- 
tion and the earnest appeal for more laborers. In 
both these directions gratifying progress was made. 

Tim additional features oi the period should like- 
wise be mentioned. Famines, particularly that of 
1877-78^ gave foreigners and the missionaries, both 
Catholic and Protestant, who were their almoners, an 
opportunity to show their love to those who had hith- 
erto been their enemies. In the years 1877-78 it is 
estimated that from ^"^nine and a half to thirteen 
millions ^^ perished, mainly in the three northern 
provinces of Shan-tung, Shan-hsi, and Shen-hsi. For- 
eigners contributed nearly half a million dollars 
toward their relief, and of those personally engaged 
in distributing aid four died from exposure and 
overwork. Naturally distrust and opposition gave 
way before the good- will, affection, and gratitude 
evoked by this charitable beneficence. But while 
doors were thus opened and many were won thereby, 
it gave to the Church some who entered it for mo- 
tives of gratitude or cupidity, and hence gave rise to 
a form of the old '^ rice Christian ^^ problem. Primarily 
for this reason, but largely as a result of the enlarge- 
ment of the native church, the question of self-sup- 
port came to the front during this period. 

The 1890 statistics revealed these facts among 
many others : The twenty-nine societies of 1877 had 
become forty-two, and the missionaries numbered 
1,296, an increase of nearly three-fold. A striking 
advance in the number of women missionaries was 
noted. ^^ In 1877 they formed little over one-eighth 
of the whole force ; in 1890 they were nearly one- 
fourth the entire number, showing the rapid devel- 
opment in the work of women for women. "^ Native 
communicants numbered 37,287, an increase of about 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA IO9 

one hundred per cent, for each four years since 1877. 
Among the natives 522 organized churches existed, 
and 1,657 Chinese were engaged in Christian work. 
Education was fitting for Christian usefulness 16,836 
Chinese children and youths. 

5. The eight years since the last conference have 
been largely lived in the inspiration and strength 
arising from that gathering. The Union Bible in 
three different literary styles, which was decided on 
then, ^^ after forty years of separation,''^ and which 
caused the delegates to rise and sing the Doxology 
when the report was presented, is proceeding rapidly, 
as is the work of the Committee to prepare an anno- 
tated Bible. The four appeals issued by that body 
came like a bugle-call to Christendom, and have met 
with a fair response. Though their request for 1,000 
men within five years was not quite responded to, 
in that only 481 of the 1,153 missionaries who entered 
the Empire during that period were males, God saw 
what was needed, and the appeal of the women was 
more than met, 672 having reached China. The 
fuller discussion of methods by persons from so many 
centres has given rise to more thoughtful work, and 
the deepening of the spiritual life has never before 
received such emphasis as within the past eight years. 

Other characteristics of this period are these : The 
missionary entrance into Hu-nan, the last and most 
hostile province of the Empire ; the various attempts 
to snuff out by mob violence Chinese missions ; the 
sifting of the Church by the fires of a persecution 
which has led to the death of a few missionaries, but 
which has also wonderfully enlarged its membership ; 
the necessity laid upon congregations unwilling to do 
their duty in the matter of self-support, because of 
the financial depression in the home lands, thus lead- 
ing to greater independence ; the possession of the 
field by two organizations that had previously only 
been initiated, viz., the Young People^s Societies and 
the National organization of the Young Men^s Chris- 
tian Association among students ; the Chinese En- 



no DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

deavor Conventions, and four conferences held by 
Mr. J. K. Mott and others in the fall of 1896, attended 
by 2,883 delegates, among whom were 999 Chinese 
students ; the presentation to the Empress Dowager 
in 1894 by the Christian women of China of a mag- 
nificent copy of the New Testament, one of the most 
costly single volumes ever printed ; the consequent 
purchase by the Emperor of copies of the Scripture 
and many other religious and scientific books ; the 
presentation to the Emperor in November, 1895, of 
a Protestant Memorial, in connection with which a 
full discussion of Protestant missionaries^ aims and 
methods was had with the Tsung-li Ya-men ; and 
the use of the Bible in one case as the basis of a ques- 
tion asked in one of the government examinations. 
Such events are a foreshadowing, perhaps, of the 
period prophesied by Dr. Martin, '' when the Church 
of Christ shall be favored by the Imperial power as 
the best, if not the only hope of national regener- 
ation/^ 

Missionary Geography. — A study of the accom- 
panying map will indicate the present distribution 
of the missionary force. It should be said, by way of 
explanation, that this is a distinctively missionary 
map, and for the sake of clearness very few cities 
have been entered upon it which do not contain 
resident missioners. The few cities not containing 
missionaries are easily distinguished by the style of 
type used. It should also be noted that a number of 
stations occupied by missionaries are not found on 
the map, as their location could not be determined 
by the compiler, and in most cases the board did not 
know their situation. 

1. Every province has been entered, though Hu- 
nan has only one station, and the missionaries there 
are so persecuted that for a time it may be that itin- 
eration will be the best method of accustoming the 
hostile gentry to the foreigner's presence among 
them. Shan-hsi has the largest number of mission 
stations, both absolutely and in proportion to the 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA III 

number of square miles ; but even here each station 
would have 1^285 square miles of territory to care 
for, if they were equally distributed. It is as if only 
one town in Ehode Island contained a church, whose 
pastor and members were responsible for the evangel- 
ization of the entire State and a considerable fringe 
of Connecticut besides. Hu-nan^s one station has 
territory equivalent to that of Maryland and the two 
Virginias to cover ; while Kan-su has but one station 
to 10,454 square miles, Kuei-chou, one to 12,911 
square miles, Yiin-nan, one to 17,995 square miles, 
and Kuang-hsi, one to 19,562 square miles. Sure- 
ly the territory is not yet occupied for Jesus Christ, 
and there is still much land to be possessed. 

2. The character of the places occupied by mission- 
aries should be noted. They are marked to indicate 
their rank as fu cities, tings, chous, and hsiens. 
These and the provincial capitals are all walled cities, 
and 247 of them are marked on the map as being 
mission stations. Yet in the eighteen provinces 
there are 1,746 such walled cities, including For- 
mosa ; hence about one-seventh of these important 
centres of life have foreign missionaries resident 
within their walls. When it is recalled that these 
cities are deemed influential in the order of hsien, 
chou, ting, fu and provincial capital, and that in 
them are held the examinations for all but the high- 
est degree, thus assembling in them toward a mill- 
ion students each year, their occupancy is manifestly 
called for. 

Yet the smaller towns, which are missionary res- 
idences to the number of eighty-eight, are usually 
chosen because of an especially inviting opening, and 
so are often more fruitful than larger places. 

3. As the provinces on the map have been colored 
to indicate density of population, it will be seen that 
stations are planted without reference to this fact, 
for the reason that the force is still so small in pro- 
portion to the population and size of territory that 
this factor has not needed to be considered. Yet in 



112 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

general the littoral and Yang-tzii provinces^ where 
population is most dense^ are fairly well cared for, 
Hu-nan excepted. Future operations in the Empire 
will doubtless have regard for this important factor 
of density where accessibility coincides with popn- 
lousness. 

4. Unoccupied territory is everywhere found, even 
where stations are most numerous. Thus in the dis- 
trict that the writer labored in, of the more than six 
hundred towns and villages properly belonging to his 
station^s fields probably not more than one-third had 
ever been visited by preachers. A glance at the map 
will show what provinces and parts of provinces are 
least able to reach Christian books and the servants 
of Christ. Hu-nan, Kuang-hsi, Kuei-chou, Yun- 
nan, and large sections of Ssii-ch'^uan are very remote 
from the bearers of truth. 

Some Statistics. — Those found on pages 104, 105 
are as accurate as any of recent date, though it has 
been impossible to get returns from all societies, and 
so such data as was obtainable from earlier reports 
have been used. Those taken from the 1896 edition 
of the " China Mission Hand-book '' are mainly for 
the year 1893 ; hence the totals are too small. 

1. It will be seen that fifty-three organizations 
have their representatives in China. Had those 
women^s and other societies, working in co-operation 
with boards whose names are mentioned, been en- 
tered, the number would be still larger, of course. 
Twenty-three of the societies listed are American, in- 
cluding Canada, seventeen are British, ten are Con- 
tinental societies, and three are international — ^. e., 
receive their support and missionaries from more 
than one country. The only one of importance is 
the China Inland Mission, mainly British, but hav- 
ing in its membership 112 sent out from America, 
besides a number from the Continent. 

2. The force sent out by all these organizations 
numbers 2,458 missionaries, of whom 967 belong to 
American societies, 625 to British organizations, 145 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA II3 

are Continentals^ and 780 are members of interna- 
tional societies. It should be said that an injustice 
is done all national totals^, save the American, in 
this enumeration, since they are the only ones that, 
without exception, mention the entire force, includ- 
ing wives of missionaries, as some European societies ■ 
do not. 

So far as given, 526 of these, or 31.5 per cent., 
were ordained ; 518, or 21.2 per cent., were laymen ; 
674, or 27.6 per cent., were wives of missionaries, 
and 724, or 29.7 per cent., were unmarried women. 
A medical force was reported of 192, of whom 136 
were men and 56 women. A native contingent of 
5,071 faithful Chinese men and women v/ere en- 
gaged in various forms of Christian activity. With 
the missionaries added, the entire Protestant work- 
ing force numbers 7,529, an average of one worker 
to every 51,701 of China^s population. If foreign 
workers are alone considered, each man and woman 
has a parish to care for of 158,362 souls ! 

3. These agents are located at 335 main stations, 
whence they go forth to regular appointments at 
1,969 outstations, not to mention the far larger num- 
ber of cities and villages where the gospel has been 
proclaimed, but which are not reported in the sta- 
tistics. As a result of these efforts, 80,682 converts 
are found in Protestant churches, an average of one 
Christian to 4,824 of his fellow-countrymen. Con- 
nected with these centres of light are 1,766 day- 
schools with 30,046 boys and girls under Christian 
instruction, and 105 institutions of higher learning 
attended by 4,285 young men and women. This 
total of 34,331 under instruction is a most hopeful 
feature in Chinese work, and if those who attend 
station-classes or who are taught at their homes by 
Bible women and missionaries were added, the re- 
sults accomplished through teaching would be still 
more gratifying. 

Additional Agencies. — In the tables no place 
has been given to organizations which do not commis- 



114 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

sion special foreign agents to do their work in the 
Empire, but which do a most important work for the 
people. 

1. First among these efforts may be placed the aid 
furnished by the Tract Societies of the West, which 
nobly co-operate with the Tract Societies of China. 
The main societies working in the Empire are the 
North China Tract Society, with Peking as its head- 
quarters, the Chinese Tract Society of Shanghai, 
the Central China Eeligious Tract Society of Han- 
k'ou, the North Euhkien Tract Society of Fu-chou, 
and the Kiukiang Tract Society. Aided by the 
American Tract Society and the Eeligious Tract So- 
ciety of London, they are yearly issuing myriads of 
tracts adapted to the dialects of the regions occu- 
pied, besides periodicals of great value in mission 
work. Most of these sell their product to the na- 
tives at a greatly reduced price, or even donate 
them where thought desirable. 

The Society for the Diffusion of Christian and 
General Knowledge has a somewhat different object 
in view. Its publications are intended for general 
enlightenment and for the higher classes not reached 
by ordinary efforts. The books and periodicals are 
accordingly more apologetic and scientific in charac- 
ter than those of the Tract Societies, and are usually 
sold at cost price. 

Book-lending Societies among the native Christians 
are intended to make these publications accessible to 
hitherto unreached classes, such as school-teachers, 
local officials, and gentry. Calls and conversation 
lead to the loan of books, and this gives opportunity 
to call again, extend the acquaintance, and make clear 
what is misunderstood. 

2. The mission presses have been most potent 
agencies for good, from the first one established by 
Drs. Morrison and Milne of the London Mission, 
down to the latest one set up. They have not only 
furnished valuable books, but have taught China 
how to print in modern style and by more economical 



THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OF CHINA II5 

methods. The two largest, and among the most 
important mission presses of the world, are those of 
the American Presbyterians at Shanghai and of the 
American Methodists at Fn-chou. Other most help- 
ful ones are the American Board's at Peking, the 
Church Missionary Society's at Ningpo, the English 
Presbyterians' at Swatau, the National Bible Society 
of Scotland's at Han-k'^ou, the Methodist Central 
China Press at Kiukiang, that of the China Island 
Mission at T'^ai-chou, and smaller establishments at 
Peking — belonging to the S. P. G. Mission and the 
American Methodists — one at Nodoa in Hai-nan, 
and another at Mukden in Slieng-ching. 



VII 

THE MISSIOKARIES AT WORK 

Missionaries soon find the need of versatility, 
since one must be all things to all men as occasion 
requires. Even sex distinctions are often overlooked, 
and the woman preaches to men as well as to her sis- 
ters. In general, however, women devote themselves 
to educational work and evangelism of the house-to- 
house and less public sort, while a small proportion of 
them are physicians or devote themselves to the prep- 
aration of literature. In the brief summary follow- 
ing, it is understood that women adapt the methods 
mentioned to their special constituency, rather than 
adopt entirely different methods. 

The Human Agent in Missions.— As much 
depends upon him, humanly speaking, it is manifest 
that self-culture must occupy much of his time. 

1. The possibilities of error in a monosyllabic lan- 
guage, with its important tonal distinctions, are so 
great and vital that missionaries in no other country 
need to be so conscientious and thorough as those in 
China in their language study. One can readily pre- 
pare himself to be misunderstood in a few months ; 
few, except physicians, can so far master Chinese as 
to do satisfactory work in less than a year or a year 
and a half, and none will be so foolish as to ever 
cease delving at the language. 

2. Meanwhile the missionary can be useful in 
other ways. If stationed with colleagues, he can re- 
lieve them of many secular details, such as the care 
of the premises, the station treasurership in some 
cases, and after a few months he can have general 
charge of the station book-room. He can also be 

ii6 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 117 

useful in drawing a crowd for native preachers, if 
he sings or is willing to be a ^^ sign-board/^ which 
in new regions is tantamount to being a menagerie 
for the curious, gaping crowd. But he can be some- 
thing more ; for with the help of one's teacher a brief 
sermonette can be prepared and memorized, and this 
may be repeated indefinitely and added to from day 
to day. 

3. A still more vital matter \^ preparation of heart, 
which is of the utmost importance in a spiritual work 
of such difficulty. The hours spent in Bible study, 
meditation, and prayer will be found a most profitable 
investment. Daily conduct must be watched with 
the utmost care, since the Chinese have been trained 
to imitate their teachers, and native Christians follow 
the national habit. 

4. During these early months the missionary will 
devote as much time to the study of tlie people as to 
the language, perhaps. Books will aid in this, but a 
loquacious teacher or trusted Christian, and constant 
observation and inquiry, will do more still. 

Efforts for China's Physical Alleviation. — 
1. Medicine has been the wedge used to open 
doors of hundreds of unfriendly homes. From the 
first moment of his arrival, the physician is most 
useful, and though the natives may not realize the 
priceless worth of the gospel message, release from 
pain, and from many diseases which Chinese prac- 
titioners cannot heal, is appreciated most gratefully. 
An iron will is needed to make physicians take time 
to learn anything more than the vocabulary required 
by professional demands ; for this reason and because 
of heavy clinics, doctors are always tempted to leave 
to others the ministration to soul-needs. 

While dispensaries are far more common than hos- 
pitals, the latter are apt to yield more encouraging 
spiritual results. Leisure to learn through oral in- 
struction the gist of the gospel is there afforded, and 
hundreds have also embraced the opportunity to learn 
to read, through the medium of Christian tracts. 



Il8 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

which are carried later to their homes as a silent 
leaven. 

The Chinese have a proverb that a woman cannot 
avoid the doctor and her husband ; yet in spite of 
this unwilling consent^ women physicians are gladly 
welcomed by Chinese women for themselves and 
children. Very many invitations to visit homes come 
from this source. 

2. Famine relief , as we have seen^ is a conciliating 
agency of great value. Seldom are missionaries called 
upon to distribute aid in the afflicted districts, but 
frequently refugees from local famines come to the 
mission compound. This is a favorable opportunity 
for gaining friends, but it involves one in many per- 
plexities arising from their willingness to continue in 
dependence upon the foreigner, and ^^rice Chris- 
tians ^^ are apt to be the fruitage of such efforts. 

3. Reforms of a thousand kinds await the Church 
of the future in China ; but seductive as is their ap- 
peal to the missionary, only two thus far have re- 
ceived much attention. The opium curse, which so 
threatens China^s life, fills the great cities with 
thin-faced, wretchedly ragged victims. ISTaturally 
opium refuges have been extensively opened, in spite 
of the fact that so few, who are enabled to give up 
the drug, persist in their determination after leaving 
the refuge. 

Far more hopeful is the attempt to induce women 
of the Church to abandon the cruel custom of foot- 
linding. While comparatively few of them have 
been willing to unbind their own feet and thus un- 
dergo once more an agony little less severe than that 
of their childhood, very many have unbound those of 
their daughters. Persistent agitation has led to the 
formation of native anti-foot-binding societies, and 
Chinese Christian scholars have written some litera- 
ture upon its evils. 

4. Defectives have scarcely been touched thus far 
by Protestant missionaries. Mr. Murray in Peking 
has elaborated a system for teaching the Uind to read. 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK IIQ 

and the extreme ease of learning the art has caused 
it to be adapted for sight readers. He has^ also, a 
sort of blind asylum there, and another school has 
been opened in the heart of the Empire. A very 
small beginning has been made in Shan-tung in the 
direction of instructing deaf mutes, but they are so 
few compared with the many blind that little em- 
phasis is laid upon this effort. Thus far not a single 
insane asylum has been attempted, though it has 
been strongly agitated by the missionaries in the 
South. 

An excellent foundling asylum is conducted at 
Hongkong by the Berlin ladies, and other less exten- 
sive ones are found here and there among the other 
missions. 

Educational Work. — While evangelistic work 
almost always precedes any other variety of effort, 
and though it always has the pre-eminence, educa- 
tion in one form or another soon becomes a strategic 
necessity which most boards recognize. 

1. Day-schools, usually for pupils of one sex — 
though sometimes mixed schools are opened for very 
young children — are the commonest sort of educa- 
tional institutions. Boys and girls, mainly from poor 
Christian families, whose parents could not afford to 
have them go to an ordinary school, make very rapid 
progress in their studies, thanks to a rational system 
of instruction and to heredity. Eeading, v/riting, 
and a beginning in Western learning are imparted, 
but the staple of instruction is the Bible. Hundreds 
of pupils in day-schools memorize the gospels, and 
many the entire New Testament. Better still, they 
are taught to look upon it as a divine seed, and in 
many a child^s heart it has germinated and brought 
forth fruit in heathen court-yards. 

In some of these schools the pupils need to be in- 
duced to come by the gift of a few cash, picture- 
cards, etc., but in older communities Christians so 
much appreciate them, that their partial or entire 
support is often obtained. Native teachers, many of 



I20 DAIVN av THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

them trained in mission schools of a higher grade, 
are usually in charge, though foreign supervision is 
always helpful. 

2. Boar ding 'Scliools are attended by a compara- 
tively few picked students ; but the close contact 
with the missionaries, and with a community of 
Christians isolated from the heatlien mass, has been 
an inestimable benefit to the leaders of the Church, 
who would otherwise have had no definite conception 
of what Christianity can effect in associated life. 
This advantage more than offsets the objection that 
a hot-house atmosphere, which unfits them for sterner 
experiences of service, is the penalty of such schools. 
These institutions are especially valuable for the 
young women, the future wives and mothers of the 
Christian community, who there learn lessons in 
home-making that will prove invaluable. 

The studies pursued in such schools are disap- 
pointingly limited in range in the opinion of the 
newly arrived foreigner ; yet in many cases they are 
such as are best adapted to the peculiar needs of the 
Chinese. Ancient and modern languages — except 
English along the coast and in the ports — are not 
worth learning, as dense ignorance on more vital 
topics exists, and the study of their own Classics is 
indispensable as an element of Chinese culture, and 
as a mental discipline is almost as valuable as Greek 
and Latin to the student of the West. 

3. Comparatively few genuine colleges exist. Yet 
the pressing need of the near future is that of a body 
of well-trained natives who can enter the vast fields 
opening to the civil engineer, the mining expert, the 
electrician, and the topographical engineer. Astron- 
omy and mathematics, which have previously been 
desired, must also be taught. It can be said with 
perfect truth that thus far the missionaries have been 
China^s best, and almost only, instructors, and in 
the higher institutions students are being trained 
who receive a moral education second to that im- 
parted in no Western college, and a mental develop- 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 



ment that compares favorably with that of onr stu- 
dents. 

The Chinese are settling for themselves the mooted 
question of English study. The new demjand for a 
knowledge of our language has drawn to mission col- 
leges young men of a higher social standing than 
have ordinarily been reached^ and they have gladly 
paid the required fees. As a mere matter of acquir- 
ing knoAvledge, more accurate information could be 
gained through Chinese^ and in a far less time than 
is necessary when English is the medium of instruc- 
tion. But the question of keeping up with the 
progress in the sciences is a most serious one, if 
Chinese text-books and periodicals are the sole de- 
pendences. Moreover, English is the only possibil- 
ity of communicating with most Western merchants 
and promoters of various sorts, and as pidgin English 
is wofully meagre, a full-fledged variety is a neces- 
sity. Thus far the chief difficulty connected Avith 
its study has been the fact that English-speaking 
compradores, etc., are in such demand that students 
are drafted off as soon as they get a fair command of 
the tongue, and often fall before the temptation to 
^^ squeeze ^^ the foreigner. With few honorable ex- 
ceptions, such men are of little use to the native 
church thereafter. 

Another charge brought against English instruc- 
tion and Western education in general is that so 
much time is required for such studies that the stu- 
dent cannot acquire his own classical language, thus 
failing to have influence as a writer over the power- 
ful literary element of the Empire. Yet, if Western 
ideas are modified enough to permit the memoriza- 
tion of the Classics, in part at least, and of study 
aloud, so that tones can be corrected by the teacher, 
it is quite possible for the student, aided by modern 
ideas of education, to gain much knowledge from 
the West, as well as Chinese culture, in the same 
number of years required for taking the Chinese 
degrees. 



122 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

4. Industrial education has its advocates in some 
missions^ both as a means of discipline and as a prep- 
aration for nsefnhiess and self-support in later life. 
It has its value^ also, in ennobling the native concep- 
tion of labor and in living down the current convic- 
tion that the moment the scholar^s gown is donned 
the finger-nails may grow and no manual labor be 
undertaken — a curse of China^s present situation. 
The growing demand for technical schools will also 
aid in this direction. 

5. Education for Christian service is an endeavor 
that even those boards approve of which do not en- 
courage a general educational work. Station-classes 
for men and women — separate, of course — bring to- 
gether for a few weeks or months, usually in the 
winter season, when people are least busy, a company 
of interested Christians or inquirers anxious to be 
fitted for usefulness in their homes. It is a rare priv- 
ilege to have in charge such a class. Some are 
stupid, but all are eager learners ; for, as they often 
say, ^' This is heaven,''^ and such heavenly privileges 
are never undervalued or misimproved. Hundreds 
every year gain information and inspiration in these 
classes that enable them to stand alone in the midst 
of persecution, and become a savor of life unto life 
among unbelieving multitudes. 

The few theological schools established attempt to 
do more thoroughly for chosen young men of the 
Church what station-classes accomplish for the uned- 
ucated many in more advanced life. Though For- 
mosa missions must now be considered as belonging 
to Japan, Dr. Mackay^s class of theological students 
receive there a training as nearly ideal as can be 
found for Chinese helpers. On the Chinese main- 
land seminary students are most thoroughly edu- 
cated in all that pertains to the work of evangeliza- 
tion and the regular ministry, and in these institutions 
are men some of whom have mastered the contents 
and drunk in the spirit of the Bible as no seminary 
students of the Occident have done. 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 123 

Literature in Chinese Missions. — As no other 
missionary country honors literature so highly as 
China, so literary work has had a correspondingly 
large amount of attention given it. 

1. The preparation of literature of every variety. 
Bibles, religious treatises, educational works, and 
periodicals both secular and religious, has fallen al- 
most entirely on the shoulders of missionaries, as did, 
in the earlier days, the writing of philological works. 
Many have become authors who have no gifts in that 
direction, but it is probably true that no country has 
had so large a number of competent translators and 
authors as China. Bible translators, like Morrison, 
Medhurst, Bridgman, Blodget, Burdon, and Scher- 
eschewsky, and the present Committees working on 
revised versions, are men to be grateful for, even if 
some of the earlier generation aimed at perspicuity 
and elegance of diction, rather than at rigid faithful- 
ness in translating the sometimes ambiguous, and to 
the Chinese, distasteful statements of the Scripture 
writers. Milne was the forerunner of authors like 
Burns, Martin, and Griffith John, who could so sink 
themselves in the Chinese environment and ^^get 
their stomachs so full ^^ of choice and attractive forms 
of expression, that the Chinese read on in spite of 
themselves, after once tasting the ^^ flavor ^^ of their 
writings. Mateer, Sheffield, Hunter, and other mis- 
sionaries have rendered a hardly less important ser- 
vice in text-book preparation than those in govern- 
ment employ, like Edkins, and Fryer ; while Faber 
and Legge have done invaluable work in making 
Chinese writings accessible to the Western reader. 
Yates, Allen, and Richard are a few missionaries 
among many who have made the periodical literature 
of China an agency of illumination and regeneration. 

2. The manufacture of books is an effort which 
mission presses have undertaken in spite of the fact 
that this meant competition with thousands of native 
presses, the entire outfit of almost any one of which 
might be packed in a hand-satchel. The experiment 



124 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

of Pi^ made nearly 900 years ago^ has become effec- 
tive in the elegant movable type of to-day, and 
though the mission-press compositor may be*^ bewil- 
dered at first as he stands, like a man in a museum, 
in the midst of the 6,000 and more compartments of 
his gigantic type-cases, he can far outstrip the block- 
cutter, both in speed of composition and beauty of 
type. Native firms have adopted the idea of photo- 
engraving and reproduce at a low price volumes for- 
merly inaccessible, as well as pirate recent missionary 
productions, thus underselling the works of foreign 
presses. Though the production of mission presses is 
very large, yet this is but a foretaste of the demands 
to be laid upon them and upon authors in the awak- 
ening that is now beginning. 

3. Practically every Protestant missionary and na- 
tive Christian worker in China aids in the distribu- 
lion of this literature. Inquirers are taught to read 
through books ; schools and training-classes cannot 
exist without them ; and they are the best and almost 
only agency through w^hich to reach the gentry and 
officials of the Empire, from local Nicodemuses, to 
the occupant of the Dragon Throne. Missionaries 
and colporteurs sell books or judiciously loan or give 
them away in chapels and tea-shops, at fairs and near 
the gates of government examination-halls. Books 
are a legitimate excuse for the foreigner's presence in 
a hostile district, and the native Book-lending Socie- 
ties of the South gain an entrance for Christian truth 
by their means into country schools and the homes of 
grandees. 

Evangelistic Work. — Highly as the missionary 
esteems efforts for the bodily and mental well-being 
of men, he never forgets that his primary object is to 
preach the gospel of an all-powerful Saviour, and a 
loving Father in heaven. This is the thread of scarlet 
that runs through the web of his royal weaving. 

1. Perhaps the most profitable efforts on the China 
field are those in which the missionary labors with in- 
dividuals^ as did Jesus at the Samaritan well. When 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 125 

masses are addressed, one cannot tell whether the 
strange message is understood ; but let one sit down 
and talk with a man, as to a brother, and not only- 
are misunderstandings cleared away, but a personal 
relation of friendliness and respect is established. It 
is ^Y^ private loork that gives one an opportunity 
with men of the higher classes, and in general it is 
so profitable that Romanists confine themselves almost 
entirely to it, encouraging converts to bring such in- 
quirers to them. 

Timid ivomen of the letter classes can often be 
reached through visits at the missionary lady^s home. 
It is a curious, new world to the visitor, and in a life 
with very few outings it forms the staple of conver- 
sation in her home for months after. Christian wom- 
en also grow much in their spiritual life through 
personal visits at the mission compound. Mothers^ 
meetings are a more public form of the same beauti- 
ful and helpful service. Colored Scripture pictures 
are very useful in such a connection, and many have 
been placed in the homes of women otherwise inac- 
cessible to Christianity. 

2. If most of the work thus far described resembles 
that done in missions at home, chapel preaching pre- 
sents some unique features. These buildings are 
usually rented shops, located on a frequented city 
street, and open to all comers. Though the place is 
a cheerless one, and provided with rude, backless seats 
and only doubtful means of warmth in the winter, a 
respectable audience, or even a crowd, soon gathers 
to gaze at the ^^ foreign devil,^^ or to hear singing 
which is so unorthodox, because not falsetto in char- 
acter. 

The singing over, and politeness having overcome 
their prejudices, they are now seated. In new dis- 
tricts it will hardly do to offer prayer, as this method 
of proceeding might be mistaken for a magic incanta- 
tion to entrap them, and so cause a stampede. Few 
can hope to hold an audience if a long passage of 
Scripture is read. Beginning immediately, there- 



126 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

fore, the missionary, by conversation or in simple ad- 
dress, attempts to bring before his auditors the great 
facts of God, sin, and salvation. Interruptions are 
numerous : peanut-venders may shout their wares ; 
old friends recognize each other across the room, and 
start an animated conversation ; an opium-smoker 
attempts to create a disturbance ; an intermittent 
procession of smokers circulate about the stove or in- 
cense-spiral to light their pipes ; a passing mandarin 
or a street brawl calls out the entire audience to "^^ be- 
hold the hot racket, ^^ etc., etc. But they soon return, 
and comers and goers keep the chapel supplied all day 
long. Preaching alternates with tea-drinking, con- 
versations with groups, reading, and the sale of books 
and Scriptures,' and instruction of any inquirers 
present. So few have ever heard the gospel before, 
and so rarely come again, that this agency is useful 
in scattering broadcast an inkling of the truth, rather 
than in direct conversion. 

3. Itineration requires some nerve and great pow- 
ers of adaptation. Journeying on foot, by wheelbar- 
row, cart, sedan-chair, or boat, a walled-city is visited, 
usually on a day when a fair is being held. Armed 
with books and Scriptures, the itinerant takes up his 
position on the side of the narrow, crowded street, 
and amid the bedlam of shouting sellers of all kinds 
of commodities he speaks his message as he is able. 
Very rarely is one stoned out of the city, and work 
can be continued till nightfall, if lungs and throat 
permit. The curious crowd tenders an evening re- 
ception at the inn, but this is compensated for at its 
close, when not infrequently an awakened searcher 
after Truth remains to continue till midnight, per- 
haps, a conversation that angels might rejoice to 
hear. 

In villages this itineration is much less taxing and 
more fruitful. Seated beside the village well, or 
standing on the steps of the dingy temple, groups of 
farmers just in from the fields, and often women — 
who rarely appear in public in the cities — gather 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 1 27 

round to look on and to hear the stranger^s words. 
A talk-sermon^ general friendliness^ catechisms or 
tracts bought, and perhaps a few simple characters 
written on the hard earth of the highway or thresh- 
ing-floor to testify to the truth of the gospel, are the 
means used by the Spirit to regenerate lives. 

Where such itineration is systematic, and progress 
can be made, as in the field of the American Presby- 
terians and English Baptists in Shan-tung, this work 
is exceedingly valuable. The German missionaries 
in Kuang-tung are also great believers in country 
work, as contrasted with the more unfavorable efforts 
made in Chinese cities. The late Dr. ISTevius was the 
leading advocate of the fully developed village-circuit 
system, and it can be found described in his ^' Methods 
of Mission Work.''^ In a word, his plan is to interest vil- 
lages through itineration, and as soon as inquirers ap- 
pear, make the ablest of them the leader of the group. 
These meet periodically for the study of a graduated 
series of lessons and for worship. These leaders are 
themselves instructed through station-classes at the 
missionaries^ home. Eev. A. G. Joneses modification 
of this system is, however, more productive of per- 
manent desirable results, perhaps. 

The Native Church. — This is the natural out- 
come of mission schools. Christian literature, and an 
oral proclamation of the gospel. Upon its purity and 
activity depends the future of Christianity in China. 

1. A traveller visiting one of these clnirches v/ould 
see little peculiar about them. To be sure it may be 
only a ^''church in the house "" of some Chinese 
Aquila and Priscilla, but that is surely apostolic. 
Then if in a church building, the sexes may be sep- 
arated by a " middle wall of partition,^^ and creeping 
babies and unquiet dogs may be much in evidence. 
He would note the hearty singing, albeit discordant, 
the kneeling audience engaged in prayer, and would 
remark the exceedingly simple and scriptural form of 
the sermon, if he could understand it. At the con- 
clusion of the service he would see evidences of 



128 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

apostolicity in the mutual affection or regard shown ; 
and it* he followed inquirers to waiting-rooms and 
saw the kindliness exhibited and the desire to instruct 
them in Christian truth and life by the '' church- 
friends ^^ — members — he would believe in missions. 

2. A well-regulated Cliinese Sunday-scliool is an 
inspiration. Bright-faced boys, demure girls with 
'' willow gait ^^ and flower-bedecked jet black hair, a 
few youths and maidens, middle-aged and gray-haired 
men and women, are keenly enjoying the singing, 
the lesson-study, in preparation for which consider- 
able time has been spent, and the blackboard work, or 
lesson review. Few methods have excited greater in- 
terest than those of modern Sunday-schools of the 
West, adapted to conditions in China. 

3. Though young peoples' societies, both of the 
Young Men^s Christian Association and Endeavor 
type, are very useful, they are somewhat hampered 
by the prevalent opinions concerning the inferiority 
of youth and the relation of the sexes. While mixed 
young peoples^ societies are a success in some mis- 
sions, a better effect is usually produced on the com- 
munity if the sexes meet by themselves. The feel- 
ing of personal responsibility for the religious life of 
other Christians and for the salvation of neighbors 
has been a new and much-needed element introduced 
by these organizations. 

The Association has been especially helpful, and in 
some cases has changed the members from useless 
hangers-on in the church to being inventive and 
active unpaid fishers of men. New methods have 
been so useful that they have overcome in some dis- 
tricts the prejudice against youthfulness. In places 
where students are gathered in some numbers, it has 
been most successful. The conventions arising from 
these young peoples^ societies have given the native 
Christians a greater sense of solidarity than any 
other fact perhaps. 

4. The condition of the churches is further apos- 
tolic in that some of their saints are of the seamy sort. 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 1 29 

just as in Corinth. This makes discipline a matter 
of much importance and anxiety to the missionary. 
The mutual suspicion and fear of petty revenge which 
has before conversion filled their life^ operates to 
make them conceal evils until an explosion occurs, 
and then in the midst of mutual recriminations facts 
are hard to ferret out. In older communities, where 
a substratum of faithful Christians is present, these 
evils are few and do not bring serious reproach on 
the Church. Polygamy in some cases has caused much 
trouble, and in others opium - smokers and ^^rice 
Christians ^' have been the source of mischief. Im- 
purity, strange to say, has occasioned remarkably few 
lapses from the faith. One of the great needs of the 
Chinese Christian is that of a stronger conviction of 
the unity of the Church of Christ, and of the fact 
that all suffer in the sin of one. 

5. As already intimated, self -support is a perplex- 
ing problem in the present missionary situation. 
Church members are few in most congregations ; 
almost all of them are from the poorest class in society 
and find it difficult to make ends meet since they 
must keep the Sabbath, and thus suffer in the keen 
competition of populous China ; and they live in a 
climate and on soil which are less friendly than those 
of Burma, where such wonders in self-support have 
been seen. For these and other reasons, most mis- 
sionaries have asked their boards to assume the ex- 
penses, or most of them, until the church should be- 
come strong enough to bear them. 

Some of the evils of this policy are thus stated by 
Dr. Nevius : "^^ It weakens and may break up new sta- 
tions by removing from them their most intelligent 
and influential members in order to use them as 
evangelists elsewhere ; it presents Christianity too 
much as an alien system, supplied by foreign funds 
and propagated for the foreigner^'s benefit ; it has a 
tendency to attract applicants for baptism influenced 
by mercenary motives, and to retain in the church 
persons who seek mainly worldly advantages ; it in- 



I30 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

volves the necessity of a large amount of money and 
of a great deal of machinery and supervision ; it cre- 
ates dissatisfaction and discussion in the native 
Church, arising from supposed partiality in the dis- 
tribution of favors ; by appealing largely to temporal 
rather than to spiritual motives, it vitiates the char- 
acter of Christianity and diminishes its power ; the 
worldly or mercenary element, which at first promotes 
a rapid and abnormal growth, is very apt to be the 
cause at no distant period of an equally rapid decline 
and disintegration/^ Though his advocacy of a sys- 
tem to avoid these evils has great favor in America, 
Chinese missionaries, while acknowledging the evils 
mentioned, are far from regarding his system of pre- 
vention as successful, mainly because it is too super- 
ficial. In a word, this problem admits of no one solu- 
tion, and all boards are endeavoring to create a spirit 
of independence as rapidly as possible. 

6. Closely allied with the problem just mentioned, 
is that of self-propagation by the older established 
churches that may liave already come to the position 
of self-support. A strong Christian Association or 
Endeavor Society can do much in this direction, es- 
pecially if the former is made up of the members of 
a single church. Another method that has been 
adopted in a few cases is to have the church appoint 
members to itinerate during the less busy season, pay- 
ing their light travelling expenses where necessary. 
In the Nevius system, the infant church exists for 
others as well as for itself, and the work of teaching 
neighbors proceeds from the very beginning. In 
southeastern China, both self-support and self-prop- 
agation have advanced quite satisfactorily, as it has 
in many stations of the China Island Mission. 

7. AVriters in Christian lands have bewailed as an 
even greater evil threatening the mission churches 
the existence of denominationalism. Whatever may 
be true of Japan, this has not proven a serious evil 
thus far in China, except within limited areas, and 
in the case of two or three boards. As a matter of 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK I3I 

fact^ very many Christians do not even know the 
name of the denomination to which they belong. 
Chang-lao Hni^ Knng-li Hui^ Chien-tu Hui, etc., 
mean about as much to them as to the reader. They 
do know that they belong to the Yeh-su Ohiao^ Je- 
sus Sect, as opposed to the T*ien Chn Chiao, or Lord 
of Heaven Sect — Catholics — but beyond this many 
have not gone in denominationalism. It is true that 
some time and money may be unwisely expended in 
carrying on two higher educational institutions, for 
instance, when one would do for several boards in 
that locality ; but as a rule comity is carefully re- 
garded and most stations exist in a field of their own 
with Christians of no other denomination near. 
Each year more attention is being paid to economy of 
men and means, and denominationalism causes al- 
most no harm in the Empire. 

Occasional Efforts.- — Under this head may be 
placed items which do not constitute the programme of 
most boards, or which are only occasionally operative. 

1. Conventions and conferences are growing in num- 
ber and are being recognized as a profitable invest- 
ment of mission funds. Spiritual power and wise 
direction of effort are consequent upon these gather- 
ings, and they mark distinct epochs in the history of 
Chinese missions. As India and Japan have begun 
the system of annual conferences for the promotion 
of the spiritual life, so the decennial conferences at 
Shanghai for the discussion of methods and adminis- 
trative details, are being supplemented by more fre- 
quent sectional gatherings for spiritual purposes. 
Perhaps no fact promises more of blessing in the 
future than this assembling together of the mission- 
aries of China. 

2. Efforts for tlie literati of the Empire are in- 
creasingly important with the entry of China into 
the wider world-brotherhood. It is a thankless 
task, and one from which little good can be expected, 
beyond that of removing ignorance and creating 
friendliness. High officials cannot be Christians and 



132 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

hold office, since their position requires idolatrous 
acts of worship, and at present almost necessitates 
dishonest actions, unless officials were men of inde- 
pendent fortunes. 

Lectures have been very slightly useful and will 
probably continue to be so, until literary men cease 
to fear one another and are willing to come in num- 
bers to such meetings. Private interviews and visit- 
ation are far more effective in imjDarting a knowledge 
of Christianity and Western progress. 

Museums in connection with private work are un- 
doubtedly helpful and have been successfully used in 
three or four centres. Witli the coming of Western 
manufactures and industrial reforms, advocates of 
this sort of service confidently expect the leaders of 
China to take an increasing interest in such collec- 
tions of products of Occidental skill. 

Far more promising is the attempt to interest the 
higher classes through specially 2:)re]pared literature. 
The backbone of Hu-nan's opposition to Christianity 
has been injured, if not broken, by this weapon, and the 
Emperor himself seems to be open to this method of 
approach. Periodicals and the translation of such 
volumes as Mackenzie's ^^ Nineteenth Century '^ have 
already furnished material for discussion in sporadic 
and short-lived reform clnbs. 

The Need. — More than methods new and old, 
China needs a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of 
God. Missionaries, cumbered with much serving, 
acknowledge this all-important lack ; Chinese helpers, 
who read their Bibles aright, are sighing for the power 
of Pentecost ; the great body of church members 
needs to be brought face to face with spiritual things, 
until they long for the vivifying breath which, com- 
ing upon the vast valley of dry bones, will make their 
brethren and companions live once more, and for the 
first time breathe the breath of God. If the 80,000 
Protestant church members of China were Spirit-filled 
men and women, the problem of China's conversion 
would be an easy one. The two needs of nearly 400,- 



THE MISSIONARIES AT WORK 133 

000,000, which a distinguished Chinese missionary- 
says, are " character and conscience ; nay they are 
but one, for conscience is character/^ can be supplied 
only by God Himself. But as Abraham wrestled 
and would have prevailed for Sodom, had God^s 
condition been fulfilled, so these faithful ones, if en- 
abled to live a spotless, useful, loving life, and if 
clothed with the power of prevailing prayer, would 
be the ten righteous for whose sake this mighty Em- 
pire might be saved from death. 



VIII 

THE DAW2!T 

Signs of Dawn. — 1. A recent British writer has 
asserted that^, in spite of the remarkable article at- 
tributed to the late Marquis Tscng^ in which that 
eminent Chinese statesman pointed out some evi- 
dences of China^s awakening, there is^ in reality, no 
such thing in that somnolent Em})ire. China has 
simply been roused from her slumber by the disturb- 
ing rattle of a window-shutter, and having adjusted 
that, she will soon sleep again. It is doubtful whether 
he would have so written had he peimed this state- 
ment within the past two years. Those who have 
been too willing to join in the smile created by the 
hitherto truthful illustration of Indians Viceroy-elect, 
are agreed that China can never again indulge in 
^Mier ancestral sleep/^ but has arisen because burst- 
ing dawn has driven slumber from her eyelids. 

2. That she has actually opened her doors and 
windows to the light is attested by something more 
substantial than the few ports formerly accessible to 
Western commerce, and the permission granted mis- 
sionaries to enter her populous provinces by the treaty 
of 1860. The recent opening of additional inland 
water-routes of China to foreign vessels and native 
steamers will be appreciated if one remembers Minis- 
ter Denby^s words : ^^ Imagine every railroad in 
America removed, and a canal substituted, and one will 
form some idea of the magnitude of the system in 
this vast Empire. "" The North China Daily News of 
February 26, 1898, in commenting upon it, says : 
^^From the foreign point of view, the concession 
should mean an enormous increase in the trade ; and 
134 



THE DAWN 135 



from the Chinese^ it should mean not only increased 
wealth and enlightenment^ but also the safeguarding 
of the integrity of the Empire/^ To this the Chris- 
tion may add as a prophecy the words of the apoca- 
lyptic Seer : '' On this side of the river and on that 
was the tree of life^ bearing twelve manner of fruits, 
yielding its fruit every month : and the leaves of the 
tree were for the healing of the nations/'' Not only 
are the Empire^s water-gates open to the missionary 
as at no previous time, but imperial decree has gone 
forth that they shall not be closed any more, and that 
foreigners entering them must be protected from all 
assault and interference. Thus has the Gospel free 
course as never before in China. 

3. Opening doors mean also the entrance of tlie 
outer ivorld's life and worh. Our daily papers are 
full of the complications arising among Western Pow- 
ers about railway concessions, rights of exploitation 
of various sorts, etc. Telegraphs are threading all 
the Chinese provinces ; the first railroads are but the 
beginning of myriads of miles of rails ; provincial 
governors are negotiating with syndicates for the 
opening of mines, and all those industries grouped 
about the pit's mouth ; arsenals and navy yards are 
springing up ; the whir of the spindle, and the fra- 
grance of tea-drying machines are present in many 
centres of industry. China, which is essentially an 
agricultural country, is entering upon the manufact- 
uring stage of her history. Naturally, she is also an 
increasing buyer in the markets of the world. Thus 
the Bureau of Statistics at Washington reports ex- 
ports from the United States to China during the 
year ending June 30, 1897, to the value of $17,984,- 
472, as contrasted with $3,978,775 in 1880, an in- 
crease of over three hundred per cent, in seventeen 
years. Her life is accordingly beginning to remotely 
resemble that of the West, with its new wants and 
higher ambitions. 

4. If these signs of awakening are questioned let 
a glance at Hu-nan, CliinoJs citadel of darkness, con- 



136 DAJVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

vince the objector, and be taken as an illustration of 
other sections of the Empire. A telegraph line con- 
nects its capital with Wu-ch 'ang, and even the elec- 
tric light is an actuality within its sacred precincts. 
In spite of the proud boast of its literati that ^'^the 
devirs church should never be planted in the pure 
confines of Hu-nan/'' the London and China Inland 
Missions, and the American Presbyterians and Epis- 
copalians are laboring in seven Hu-nanese centres ; 
while Christian and Missionary Alliance and Cumber- 
land Presbyterian missionaries are residing in one of its 
cities. The once notorious writers and publishers of 
anti-foreign and grossly obscene attacks upon our re- 
ligion are now reading Christian books and periodi- 
cals, and the Chancellor of Education of the province 
more than a year since wrote to the Christian Liter- 
ature Society at Shanghai, acknowledging that Hu- 
nan needed reform, and asking that the Chinese edi- 
tor of that society become professor in the college of 
their provincial capital. 

5. Signs of an aioakening mind are not far to 
seek. For some years mathematics have had a place 
in government examinations in some of the centres. 
Last fall candidates for the M.A. degree at the capi- 
tal of Chiang-hsi were confronted with the question, 
^^ What do you know of the repeopling of the world 
by Noah and his family after the flood ? ^' an inquiry 
which occasioned the sale of Bibles by the score. The 
latest copies of Chinese periodicals speak of a change 
in the scope of the examinations for the two highest 
degrees, whereby the Emperor orders the old system 
of essay writing to give place to an examination " on 
general subjects, embracing certain branches of mod- 
ern science and history. ^^ Commenting upon this, 
one periodical says, ^^The movement is a bold one, 
and one which will find favor with China^s progress- 
ive men ; but the difficulty presents itself, how is the 
necessary knowledge to be acquired before the next 
examination, to meet the new requirements?^^ As 
the widely present missionaries are the only teachers 



THE DAWN 137 



available, they will doubtless be approached by these 
high Chinese scholars for aid in preparing for the ex- 
aminations, just as a few interested in reforms have 
applied to missionaries for help in that direction. 
These papers also state that in connection with the 
Imperial University of Peking, a number of colleges 
are to be opened throughout the Empire. The Chin- 
ese Minister in Japan has been instructed to obtain 
careful plans of the Imperial University at Tokyo, 
with the expectation that it will be the model for 
college buildings throughout China. Meanwhile, old 
imperial palaces or temples will probably be used for 
the purposes of education. 

But otliers than the Emperor are stirring in the 
matter of better instruction. Eev. H. M. Woods 
writes that even Hu-nan has established schools for 
the study of English, mathematics, and the sciences, 
while in other cities such institutions are being 
opened under Confucian auspices. One of these re- 
quires its students to worship the tablet of Confu- 
cius, while at the same time it bears the name of the 
school ^^ which exalts the real,^^ as if to say that ^^ the 
empty pretensions of the high-flown poetry and essay- 
writing of the old Confucian school 'Mvas to give 
place to the real at last. Private study of English 
with missionaries is not infrequent, even in the in- 
terior, a result due, possibly, to the example of the 
Emperor, who studies our language. The movement 
has extended even to women, and as the result the 
National Keform League of China issued, last year, 
a prospectus of an institution for young women, to 
be carried on wholly under Chinese control, though 
some of the teachers were to be foreigners. The plan 
was an ambitious one, and included instruction in 
English, mathematics, medicine, and law, as well as 
a kindergarten and an industrial department. At a 
meeting held in its interest, a native lady of rank, 
for the first time in history, perhaps, made a public 
speech and asked for co-operation in their attempt to 
found in China an institution akin to the School for 



138 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

Peeresses, established by the Empress of Japan at 
Tokyo. 

6. Parallel with this movement is the new interest 
taken in social reforms. Though a reform club 
made up of members of the Han-lin, the highest lit- 
erary body of the Empire, came to a speedy end at 
the capital in 1895, the idea has spread somewhat 
widely throughout the provinces, and a modified form 
of the organization, with the name of a Book Society, 
has, as its president, the Emperor^s tutor. 

Anti-Foot-hinding Societies are often found out- 
side of Christian circles. Thus the National Keform 
League very strongly condemns the practice, as it 
does that of domestic slavery of woman. One of the 
strongest utterances on the foot-binding evil is a 
booklet made up of a ballad prepared by the society 
at the capital of Hu-nan, and a denunciation of the 
cruel practice, written by the famous Chang Chih- 
tung. Viceroy of Hu-pei and Hu-nan. 

7. That a religious awakening is also evident in 
China the sixth chapter has shown. But it should 
be remembered that the rate of progress is greater 
now than at any previous period in many provinces, 
as in Fu-chien and in Sheng-ching, amounting to an 
annual increase of fifty per cent, in a few of the older 
boards. When the Prussian Giitzlaff had succeeded, 
somewhat more than half a century ago, in sowing 
along the coast the seed of Christian literature, the 
Peking Government issued an edict to the effect that 
^''the Christian religion is the ruin of morals and of 
the human heart ; therefore it is prohibited. ^^ To- 
day, persecutors of the Christians are being punished 
by imperial order, on the ground that Christian 
teaching is beneficial to the individual and to the 
Empire. Surely the Sun of Eighteousness has arisen 
upon Sinim with healing in his wings. 

Obscuring Clouds. — Yet the whole truth has 
not been told. Clouds are upon the horizon, and in 
some sections they are so thick that one can hardly 
believe that dawn has really come. 



THE DAWN 139 



1. One such cloud is the hostility felt by many in 
high positions^ because this rude and real awakening 
has come against the nation^'s will^ and by reason of 
the greed or unrighteousness of Western Powers. 
With Celestial suavity progress is acknowledged and 
perhaps lauded^ but in the heart is bitter enmity 
against every hated foreigner. Could Might perch 
on Imperial banners^, every Occidental would be 
thrust out immediately, and progress would soon 
cease. While such sentiments are felt by compara- 
tively few, they constitute an influential minority. 

2. Many another official will do all in his power to 
circumscribe the missionary in his work, because of 
the interference of foreign governments — notably 
France in earlier times, and Germany, and, to a less 
extent, Eussia at the present — in the interests of 
mission converts. The Governor of Shan-tung, de- 
graded at the demand of Germany after the mur- 
der of two German missionaries, was most bitter in 
his denunciation of foreigners. He protested against 
everything W^estern and missionary, using the classic 
phrase, " Barbarians should not be used to change 
China, ^^ very largely because the province had been 
obliged to yield in previous cases before the power of 
foreign ministers at Peking. Undoubtedly, Ger- 
many's recent action, no matter what Justification it 
has, will embitter Peking officials as nothing else, for 
is it not the missionary who has brought upon the 
Empire its present cataclysm of woes ? If there is 
ever a covert opportunity to embarrass missions, why 
should it not be embraced ? 

3. Thousands of fhe literati and of the scholars of 
the first degree looking for promotion through succes- 
sive examinations, are naturally opposed to Western 
education, brought so largely to China by the mis- 
sionaries. When men have striven for years to attain 
official position and have almost gained the coveted 
degrees through their faithful acquisition of the na- 
tive Classics, they are incensed to learn that a new 
line of education has been introduced, and that they 



I40 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

must begin, often in middle life, to acquire the learn- 
ing of the West, the key to which in some cases is 
the English tongue. Young men who have not ex- 
pended half the years that they have in study, grasp 
the golden prizes, and the efforts of a life-time avail 
nothing. As missionaries will do much to aid their 
younger competitors in stripping them of their lau- 
rels, they will receive their full share of the conse- 
quent animosity. 

Officials have another grudge against foreigners. 
Accustomed as they have been to a life of dishonesty 
in office, they hate men like those in the customs 
service, because foreign ideas of honesty — absent in 
this service so often in the West — have set an object- 
lesson of which the Government highly approves. 
Will further intercourse with the Occident disturb 
still more the present system, and make it necessary 
to give up "Corrupt methods of administration ? If 
so, all hope of gain is gone, and foreigners, especially 
the honest missionary, are responsible for this serious 
loss. 

4. Other prevalent evils among the people greatly 
obscure the morning sky. The opiu77i haiit — so uni- 
versal among those who can afford to indulge in the 
drug that in some provinces the people will tell the in- 
quirer that ''^eleven out of every ten'^ are opium-users 
— is an obstacle to Christian missions of the greatest 
moment. The harmful effects of its use are undoubt- 
edly less evident among those who can afford the 
time to smoke, and the money to keep their strength 
up, as apologist for the traffic claim. It is also largely 
true that death is oftener occasioned by starvation 
and other causes connected with opium-eating than 
by opium per se. Yet when every careful observer 
will testify that these accessory evils are practically 
unavoidable, save among the well-to-do, and further 
bear witness to the baneful effects of the drug under 
the most favorable circumstances, one can see how 
indefensible the position of opium-apologists is, and 
how harmful it may be in mission work. Some 



THE DA WN 141 



boards will not admit to diurch-membership opium- 
smokers^ even if they have reformed, for the reason 
that opium blunts or destroys not only the will, but 
also the moral susceptibilities. No one will deny 
that the Gospel has power to heal every moral dis- 
ease, but one would be slow to assert that the pres- 
ence of opium in a community is anything but a 
serious detriment to missionary effort. 

Ancestral ivorsliip is so much more difficult an ob- 
stacle to overcome than any other form of Chinese 
darkness, that it alone is deemed insurmountable by 
some. One of the most prominent foreigners in 
China, formerly a missionary, presented at the last 
Shanghai Conference a paper in which he pleaded for 
toleration in this one particular, if Christianity was 
to make any progress in the Empire. While the del- 
egates were willing to admit the seriousness of the 
obstacle, they indignantly protested against such 
vital compromise with a species of idolatry, even if 
their attitude diminished the possibility, which Ricci 
found realized, of large accessions, because converts 
were allowed this privilege. 

5. Another cloud which broods over the entire 
non-Christian world is the fact that men love dark- 
oiess rather than light. With the coming of a pure 
religion to China, every form of impurity and evil is 
rebuked and sometimes antagonized. Humble men 
and women are so shrouded in moral darkness and 
surrounded by practical difficulties threatening their 
comfort or life even, if they break with heathenism, 
that thousands shrink back at the prospect. Here is 
a business man whom the missionary would win for 
Christ. He objects that a Christian cannot lie, and 
that no Chinese can do business who does not use 
falsehood as an indispensable aid, as well as false 
weights and measures. Do Occidental Christians 
long to see the official class and the scholars of China 
enter the Church ? But how is this possible when 
every official of sufficient rank must participate in 
idolatry as an essential part of his duty. When the 



142 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

Emperor is required to fast sixty-four days in each 
year and offer up forty-three different sacrifices in 
honor of deities ranging from Shang Ti^ through the 
higher powers of nature, down to roads, gates, can- 
non, etc., the subordinate official must follow his high 
example. When the difficulties with Germany were 
at their height last year, the Pehing Gazette placed 
more emphasis upon the number of incense sticks to 
be burned and the new names to be given local deities 
which had prevented serious overflow of rivers, or 
caused the death of insects that threatened to destroy 
the foliage in the imperial mausoleum, than it did to 
the grave matters threatening the very existence of 
the Empire. Truly '' i\\e whole head is sick, and 
the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot 
even unto the head there is no soundness in it ; but 
wounds and bruises and festering sores. ^^ But there 
is balm in Gilead and a Great Physician there, and 
the promise is that ^^at evening-time there shall be 
light.^^ 

6. A sixth obstacle which prevents the dawning of 
a better day is the opposition of Romanism. If its 
representatives would allow Protestantism to do its 
work, the presence in the Empire of two Christian 
bodies holding such variant views of life and doctrine 
would be a serious objection against Christianity. 
But when Eome does all in her power to thwart and 
destroy the work of Protestantism, even to the ex- 
tent of involving Western Powers in Chinese politics, 
the harm is still greater. Perhaps one of the most 
serious struggles of the near future will be between 
the promoters of this faith, both missionaries and 
governments, and those identified with Protestantism. 

7. Sad to say, the most pitiable occasion for regret 
at this time of unprecedented opportunity is found 
in the apathy of the Church of God, Hard times 
have so occupied her thoughts that the manifest 
beckonings of His hand are not seen. Men and 
means are demanded as never before, and never be- 
fore have most boards been so unable to enter the 



THE DAWN 143 



splendid openings that Providence has thrust before 
them. Where are the men of vision who can see the 
field in all its magnitude^ and who^ possessed of the 
compassion of the Master for the multitude scattered 
as sheep having no shepherd, and fired with the zeal 
of a Peter the Hermit, will preach in the pulpits of 
Christendom a nineteenth-century crusade, not to 
rescue from unbelievers the sepulchre of a Risen Sa- 
viour, but to save from graves of despair and hope- 
lessness the unbelieving millions who stand upon 
their brink. 

Rival Forces. — As the myth of Osiris and Isis was 
suggestive to the ancient Egyptian of the struggle of 
the sun with the powers of darkness in the heaven 
above, and '^^of the parallel on the earth beneath in 
the perennial conflict between the beneficent Nile 
with the sands of the desert,^^ so the light and dark 
principles in Chinese Dualism suggest the present- 
day rivalry for the supreme place in China. Is the 
dawn to shine ^^more and more unto the perfect 
day,^^ or is the shadow on the dial to turn backward 
and darkness brood once more over the face of China? 

1. The first principle which strives to win away from 
the light this newly awakened nation is materialism. 
Perhaps no land so far advanced in civilization as 
China has so little imagination and is dominated so 
wholly by a gross materialism. In this very matter 
of dualism, so common in the Orient, Dr. Martin has 
shown that while the Persian, for instance, makes 
light and darkness the symbols of moral ideas, China 
regards them as physical agents. Listen to the con- 
versations of guests at Chinese inns, as they come to 
the ear ; an actual stenographic report and later cal- 
culation have shown the writer that a large proportion 
of it — possibly eighty per cent, under ordinary circum- 
stances — has to do with money, bodily comfort, and 
other items pertaining to the earth, and hence earthy. 
Note how assiduously the laundryman gives himself 
to his business and how little else than creature-needs 
enter into the calculation. He will go anywhere and 



144 DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

endure anything for the sake of money, the means of 
ministering to animal necessities and of acquiring 
sensuous luxuries. 

Now that the new possibilities of gaining a living 
or a competence have entered the Empire, there is a 
moral certainty that the tendency will be to make its 
inhabitants more materialistic than ever. Atheism 
will find a god to most devoutly worship in this Croe- 
sus of the West. Even the higher elements of West- 
ern life are apt to be sacrificed to lower ends. Thus 
our language will be studied for the sake of commer- 
cial or scholastic promotion, rather than for the 
broader life which can be drawn from the well of 
English. As openings in business or secular teach- 
ing become increasingly lucrative, the temptation, 
already present, wall increase among our Christian 
Chinese to enter these doors, rather than to minister 
educationally and spiritually to their countrymen, 
when only a meagre pittance can be gained therefrom. 
The Church is thus threatened with a loss which will 
prove almost fatal to independent growth and use- 
fulness. 

2. Another rival for the hand of the New China is 
found in all the great courts of Europe, alien domina- 
tion. Thus far it has been no lover^s wooing. As 
the Chinese ideogram for marriage is made up of an 
ear, a hand, and a woman — alluding possibly to the 
ancient practice of leading captured maidens to the 
marriage by the ear — so the Powers have thus far 
striven to win China by this barbaric method. But the 
failure of Occidental rivals in their suit, and the 
Czar^s recent call for a general disarmament, point to 
the time when coquetry will fill the Chinese court 
with insinuating candidates for China^s hand. While 
one Power may urge commercial advantage, another 
internal development, a third protection against the 
power and spite of other rivals, what one of them will 
strive to gain China's friendship and love for the sake 
of her reformation and soul's betterment? 

Positive disadvantage may come to the cause of 



THE DAWN 145 



righteousness in that land if she becomes the victim of 
foreign domination. Kussia^'s recent action concerning 
the Stundists is a foretaste of what may happen to 
Protestant institutions in the Empire^ if she gains 
the ascendancy, while France has uniformly shown a 
zeal for Catholic missions there which bodes ill to 
Protestant effort. Worse still, what can the Confu- 
cianist think of a religion professed by enlightened 
nations which exhibits such fruits of palpable injus- 
tice, and such an absence of that love and good- will 
which the Prince of Peace came to usher into the 
world ? So long as Christian Powers continue to 
wrangle and fight over what they deem their deserved 
spoil, simply because they hold the right of might, 
Just so long is the bright shining of the sun eclipsed 
by political and commercial shadows. 

3. Is Confucianism, then, to come to China^s relief , 
in this struggle between light and darkness ? One 
who reads that panegyric of the system, presented at 
the Parliament of Eeligions by the Chinese Minister 
at Washington, would imagine that only in Confu- 
cianism could the Empire find its saviour. As the 
reader remembers the revival of the teachings of the 
Chinese Sage in the strivings after light which swept 
over Japan a few years since, and as one notes the 
strongly moral life of Japanese Confucianists of the 
generation just passing away, it may seem more than 
a possibility that a reformed Confucianism will take 
possession of the nation^s heart, as it comes to reflect 
upon its corruption in the past and the ethical needs 
of the New China. Many a missionary has noticed 
the blush come to the cheek of his Confucian teacher 
as he has read some portions of the Old Testament, 
and some of them are bold enough to assert that in 
the Classics there is not a line that will occasion an 
impure thought. It is quite possible, then, that the 
struggle which is now on will bring out as one of 
Christianity's strongest rivals this hoary system of the 
past, even though Buddhism and Taoism may be cast 
aside in consequence. 
10 



146 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

4. That He whose right it is shall reign^ and that 
ultimately Christ will gain the victory over every 
rival to His peaceful sway in China, no Christian can 
doubt. But while our Lord postpones His personal 
coming to that Empire and to the world. His disciples 
have no right to delay their going thither. His '' Go 
ye '^ is a categorical imperative, and admits of no 
tarrying. The conquest of China is the storming of 
heathenism's Gibraltar, and demands corresponding 
forces and prayers. The Church should be as awake 
to the priceless value of this populous territory as are 
earthly powers. If India is "^^the rudder of Asia, '^ 
China is her gigantic hull, filled with teeming life, 
and threatened with awful shipwreck, unless guided 
into waters of quietness ; worse still, if left to her own 
awakened steersmen, she may become a menace to the 
world. What she needs is a prize crew to take pos- 
session of her in the name of humanity and of Christ, 
and make her a vital factor in Asia and for the King- 
dom of God. 

If it be said that this duty is no special concern of 
Protestantism, but devolves rather upon Romanism 
with its larger foothold, or upon the Greek Church, 
in view of Russia's present paramount influence, let 
it be remembered that what China sorely demands is 
not so much a better system of belief, but rather a 
living Saviour and national regeneration. Without 
being bigoted, it can be safely asserted that in neither 
of those communions is there such emphasis of these 
fundamental truths as Protestantism everywhere in- 
sists upon. Formalism, may delight and please the 
Chinese, but heart-life and heavenly purity are essen- 
tial to China's new birth. Have not Protestants been 
brought to the kingdom for such a time and work 
as this ? Plainly the responsibility belongs to her to 
whom heavenly privileges have been granted. 

The Morning Summons. — These are already 
echoing in the Christian's ear, but it may be well to 
reiterate them once more. 

1. Obviously we hear the call of the multitudes. 



THE DAWN 147 



Dr. Paton^ the Saint John of the New Hebrides^ la- 
bored with his colleagues in a hostile territory, speak- 
ing different dialects, and rightly has the interest of 
the world been given to his apostolic story. Hawaii 
is a part of Christian America to-day, because the 
missionaries of the American Board gave their lives 
to her evangelization. The Fijis are the Paradise of 
the Pacific, for the reason that English Wesleyans 
were willing to dwell by cannibal ovens, that they 
might hold up in the midst of demoniacal orgies the 
banner of the Cross. But numerically considered, 
these island populations are but as the dust of the 
balance compared with China^s myriads. One^s heart 
goes out in anguish over the overturned skiff with its 
drowning couple, but the blood turns cold as one 
thinks of the hundreds of victims of the La Bourgogne. 
Chinese missionaries have, within two miles of their 
home, a larger, and often a more approachable, con- 
stituency than the African missionary can reach by 
threading scores of miles of malarious trails. The let- 
ters of our Bibles have been marshalled, processions 
of various ingenious sorts have passed before the spec- 
tator's imagination, and in other ways attempts have 
been made to impress upon the Christian these vast 
populations, but all in vain. They are a multitude 
that no man can number, and if anyone longs to 
preach to the masses, China is certainly the best 
field. . 

But on Sinim's shores one hears more than the cry 
of mere numbers ; they are multitudes who are suffer- 
ing and dying. More millions go to bed hungry each 
night in China than in any other land ; more bodies 
endure torture under the hands of Chinese quacks 
than under the tender mercies of practitioners of any 
other race ; more women suffer from the limitations 
of their sex in China than in any other heathen na- 
tion ; more men pay the penalty of their vices there 
than anywhere else ; more brides commit suicide, and 
more young men sell themselves to be put to death in 
China than can be found in any other clime, simply 



148 DAWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

because the sweetness of life is gall, and existence is 
misery. 

This summons is one of pressing emergency. The 
Chinese character for world and for generation is 
made up of three tens. While we of the West speak 
of a generation as thirty-three years in duration, this 
linguistic fossil of past millenniums asserts that in 
three brief decades the Chinese world comes to birth, 
lives its cheerless life, and crumbles into dust. Stu- 
dents meet for an hour to study the needs of China ; 
when this hour is over, 1,325 Chinese have ceased to 
breathe. Missionary receipts are so insufficient that 
a board postpones entering China until another year ; 
tliat twelve months'* delay has removed from the pos- 
sibility of ministration 11,6] 3,728 who sorely needed 
help. The Church of God may sleep on for thirty 
years more, but when it awakes, China^s four hun- 
dred millions have passed beyond her power to save 
them. If China is not evangelized incur generation, 
then the Church can never perform her duty to one- 
fourth of the human race, which she has been com- 
manded to minister unto. 

2. The call of China^s dawning is one to heroism. 
To be sure, the missionary lives in comparative com- 
fort and among a people who are usually law-abiding. 
But count the names on China^s roll of martyrs, add 
to the list those whose minds have been shattered be- 
cause they have lived in the midst of hostile rumors 
and open opposition ; remember that the statement 
of one veteran there is true of many others — ^^ I never 
address a Chinese crowd without feeling that I am 
standing on the edge of a volcano.^^ It requires hero- 
ism to look in the face conditions such as are alluded 
to in the last issue of China's Millions — not an alarm- 
ist sheet by any means : '^ The objects of the hatred 
of men, as foreigners, deprived of protection of any 
kind by their position in the interior, defenceless by 
choice for conscience sake that they may live as well 
as preach the doctrine of peace — what might not hap- 
pen if Satan should direct in open acts the rage of 



THE DA WN 149 



men against onr beloved fellow-workers ? It is more 
than a possibility that not a few might be called to 
lay down their lives at Jesus^s feet, as Stephen did. 
And are the missionaries prepared for this ? Have 
they reckoned the cost in giving themselves to a work 
whose peril is so great ? ^' While most boards do not 
hold to a policy of non-resistance, as does that mis- 
sion, the risks of interior missionaries call for con- 
stant bravery and boldness. 

Furthermore, it is a summons to versatility. Bead 
again the varied scheme of work undertaken by the 
Church for China^s redemption. Every talent can 
here find its exercise. If one desires to be a special- 
ist, there is certainly considerable opportunity to util- 
ize differing gifts and preferences. To those who 
say with Paul, ^^ This one thing I do,^^ there will 
come demands for other service, when a colleague is 
home on furlough — which averages more than one- 
tenth of the time — and it is necessary that his work 
be kept up. There is scarcely an accomplishment or 
gift which cannot be made useful to China, if one so 
desires. 

It is a call to privilege also. While all service is 
this, there are diversities of glory. The Chinese mis- 
sionary is permitted to labor among one of the most 
remarkable races in history, and one of the most po- 
tent in its possible influence upon the life of our 
times. He has to do with the reconstructive forces 
of the China that is to be while the nation is in its 
fluid state, ready to receive the impress of foreign 
minds and hearts. It is also a privilege to take the 
place of another person whom the Government might 
summon to aid in reconstruction — were the mission- 
ary not there — but who would not care for the moral 
and spiritual welfare of men. Millions of Mexican 
dollars, of inferior manufacture and liable to be coun- 
terfeit, are found in China, to thousands made in 
Japan and America of far greater value. Why ? 
Simply because they were first in the market and the 
people have become accustomed to them as they have 



iSO DAIVN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG 

not to the purer coin. If missionaries and other 
Christians do not come to the front at this time of 
great demand, and continue to be the nation^s edu- 
cators and adviserS;, adventurers of various sorts will 
take these places of influence, and a decade hence 
they will be the Mexican dollar that will keep out 
Christian coinage. 

The present-day call is one to men and women of 
deepest consecration, A frequent Hebrew word for 
consecration means ^' with full hands." The sort most 
needed in the Chinese missionary is precisely this. 
Come to the Empire with a practical preparation of 
various sorts ; bring with you the social qualities of 
a Kicci, without his defects ; store the mind with 
learning of varied scope, to meet the intellectual 
needs of tho day ; come with a love that is undying 
for those who would perhaps put you to death, if 
they dared ; come above all as a manifest child of 
God, endued with all those spiritual graces which 
spring from the Holy Spirit and which are daily re- 
newed in a consecrated closet. Let every power be 
laid upon the altar, and self be sunk in Christ-like 
service. 

3. The summons of China's dawn are weighty be- 
cause they come from such a variety of forceful con- 
siderations, and appeal to such worthy and Christ- 
like ambitions. Yet the reader should not lay this 
little book down without a thought as to the One by 
whom these summons are primarily uttered. Christ 
is speaking through current history, and His words 
are both winsome and authoritative. Have we had 
much given us ? of us He requires correspondingly 
much. If ''God's heart then is love'' — as ''God is 
love " is rendered in the Mandarin ISTew Testament — 
it is enough to be His children and exhibit this love 
in accordance with the corollary to John iii. 16, 
found in 1 John iii. 16, 17 : "Hereby know we love, 
because He laid down His life for us ; and we ought 
to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso 
hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in 



THE DAWN 151 



need^ and shntteth up his compassion from him^ how 
doth the love of God abide in him ? ^^ 

The investment of a life is the most momentous of 
all human decisions. As Jesus before entering upon 
his active ministry went up to a mountain-top and 
there beheld the kingdoms of the world and the glory 
of them, so should every Christian examine the op- 
portunities for a life investment presented by the 
nations of a weary world. Not led by Satan, but al- 
lured by the One ^^ whom not having seen ye love/^ 
let the disciples of Jesus gaze long and prayerfully 
upon the plains and hills of T^ang, with the glad 
word of surrender upon their lips, " Here am I, send 
me.^^ Such attitude makes impossible any regrets at 
that Great Day, when the Judge of all the earth shall 
utter the words of blissful significance, " Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world."" Then 
shall the translated missionary realize the royal nat- 
ure of his service in Sinim. He thought that he was 
ministering to hostile Chinese who were hungry, 
thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and in Satan^s prison- 
house ; but the backward look revealed the blessed 
fact that ^^ Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my 
brethren, even these least, ye did it unto Me/" 



APPENDIX A 

Provincial Divisions. — China Proper is often called by the 
Chinese The Eighteen Provinces, but Sh^ng-ching, in southern 
Manchuria, may be considered as the nineteenth province. 
Formosa, since the recent war, belongs to Japan, and the only 
other considerable island, Hai-nan, constitutes part of Kuang- 
tung province. A few leading points concerning each of them 
are given below. For convenience in consulting the map, the 
order in which they are taken up is that of the thirteen which form 
boundary provinces— beginning at the northeast and passing 
southward, westward, northward, and eastward to the starting- 
point— and later the six interior provinces are described. 

1. Sheng-chmg =::Af^vient Capital (43,000 square miles, some- 
what smaller than Pennsylvania ; population, 6,000,000, or 140 per 
square mile. — Professor R. K. Douglas, in Britannica). Though 
part of the original realm of the Manchus, this section of Man- 
churia has always been essentially Chinese, and at the present time 
is being rapidly colonized by natives of the two provinces to the 
south of it. It is one of the most fruitful mission fields of China, 
in spite of the strong opposition of Catholics. Mukden, the 
capital, gives its name to the province and stands second among 
the cities of the Empire in official rank. It is the chief centre of 
Protestant missionary work and is one of the pleasantest cities 
of residence in China. The southern tongue of this province 
contains Port Arthur, recently taken possession of by Russia. 

2. Chih'li='DiTect Rule (58,949 square miles, size of Georgia ; 
population, 17,937,000, or 304 per square mile). The name 
arises from the fact that '' from this province the supreme power 
whiclr governs the Empire proceeds,'* Peking, the capital — re- 
garded by travellers as the most interesting and unique city of 
Asia — lying within its boundaries. Mohammedans are quite nu- 
merous in this province, especially in the north, where in Peking 
alone 20,000 families are said to reside. Most of the territory is 
very flat and low-lying and consequently much of the land along 
the rivers is subject to yearly devastation. Tientsin, its great 
port, is the residence of the far-famed Li Hung-chang, who has 
for many years been China's virtual ruler. It is also an impor- 
tant seat of Western educational institutions, which have been 
fostered by Viceroy Li. 

3. Shan-tung =Bgist of the Hills (53,762 square miles, size of 
Arkansas; population, 36,247,835, or 557 per square mile). 

153 



154 APPENDIX A 



Shan-tung has a maritime border equal to more than half its cir- 
cuit which includes Wei-hai-wei and Kiao-chou Bay, recently 
taken possession of by England and Germany respectively. This 
is the Holy Land of China, as within its borders were born her 
two greatest philosophers and sages, Confucius and Mencius. Its 
sacred T'ai Shan, a mountain famous in Chinese history for 4,000 
years, is still annually visited by thousands of pilgrims. A 
French missionary mentions one such party consisting of old 
ladies from seventy-eight to ninety years of age who had 
travelled 300 miles to secure a happy transmigration for their 
Bouls. Shan-tung is also a very fruitful mission field. 

4. Chta7ig-su—RiYeT Thyme, a name derived from the first 
syllables of its capital Chiang-nan — known to the West as Nan- 
king — and of its richest city, Su-chou (44,500 square miles, 
size of Pennsylvania; population, 20,905,171, or 470 per square 
mile). Like the two preceding provinces, Chiang-su forms part of 
the Great Plain. It has few hills and is more abundantly watered 
than any other province. It contains one of the former capitals 
of the Empire, Nanking, meaning Southern Capital, as Peking 
signifies Northern Capital. Shanghai, its great semi-foreign 
city, ranks first among Chinese ports. Another famous place is 
Su-chou, reckoned by the Chinese as the luckiest place in which 
to be born, because it has the handsomest people. Chiang-su 
was the main centre of the great T^ai P'ing rebellion, Nanking 
being the rebel capital from 1853 to 1864. 

5. Che-chiang =Tida\-hoTe River, a stream that gives its name 
to the province (39,150 square miles, size of Virginia; popula- 
tion, 11,588,692, or 296 per square mile). It is hilly throughout 
and is celebrated for its tea and silk. The capital, Hang-chou, 
occupies a most picturesque site overlooking the sea, and is so 
beautiful that with its sister city, Su-chou, it has given rise to 
the common proverb, '' Above there is Paradise, below are Su 
and Hang." Were it not for its furious tides and famous bore 
it would monopolize the eastern trade of China, It is one of the 
strongholds of Mohammedanism in the Empire. Che-chiang's 
climate is most healthful, its fruit and forest trees valuable, its 
manufactures varied and excellent, and its inhabitants compar- 
able in wealth, refinement, and learning with those of other 
provinces. 

6. i^w-c/iien=Happily Established (38,500 square miles, size 
of Maine and New Hampshire combined; population, 22, 190,- 
656, or 574 per square mile). Though the smallest in the Em- 
pire since the island of Formosa has been added to Japan, this 
province is the most densely settled of all, Shan-tung not ex- 
cepted. " In the general features of its surface, the islands on 
the coasts, and its position with reference to the ocean it re- 
sembles the region east of New Hampshire." A German 
writer calls Fu-chien '' the Chinese Switzerland." Fu-chou, its 
capital, and Amoy are important places, both from a commer- 



APPENDIX A 155 



cial and missionary point of view. Since the Ku-ch'^ng (Ku- 
t'ien) massacre of 1895, missionary work in this province has mar- 
vellously prospered, proving anew that '^ the blood of martyrs is 
the seed of the Church." 

7. Kuang-tung = Broad East (79,456 square miles, size of 
Minnesota; population, 29,706,249, or 377 per square mile). 
The above area includes the island of Hai-nan. From this 
province, the birthplace of Chinese Protestant missions, most 
of our early knowledge of China was derived, as it was the only 
one open to foreign trade ; and from it have come to America 
almost all of our Chinese fellow-citizens. Its capital, Kuang- 
chou Fu (Canton), is probably the most populous city in the 
land and its inhabitants have been called the Yankees of China. 
Hongkong and Macao on this coast are well-known possessions 
of Great Britain and Portugal, while thirty miles southwest from 
Macao, on the island of St. John, lie the bones of Rome's most 
famous missionary, Francis Xavier. 

8. Kuang-hsi = Brosid West (78,250 square miles, size of 
North and South Carolina combined ; population, 5,151,327, or 
65 per square mile). This most sparsely settled province has, 
like Hu-nan, strenuously resisted the coming of missionaries. 
Few foreigners have visited the country, as its people are poor 
and its products not very desirable. Several half-subdued 
tribes live within its boundaries, who, though under their own 
governors, are subject to Chinese supervision. On the south- 
west, near Annam, are many descendants of Lao tribes who ap- 
pear to have come under Chinese authority because of greater 
security to Life and property. 

9. Yiln-nan = Cloudy South, i.e., south of the YUn-ling — 
Cloudy Mountains (107,969 square miles, size of New England 
States and Pennsylvania combined; population, 11,721,576, or 
108 per square mile). The greater part of Yiin-nan consists of 
a plateau elevated a mile above the sea and containing many 
valley plains. It is richer in minerals of various sorts than any 
other province, and its copper mines bid fair to prove of value, 
now that Japanese engineers have been employed to teach the 
people modern mining methods. It also supplies to China much 
of its medicine, including besides '' herbs and roots, fossil shells, 
bones, teeth and various products of the animal kingdom." Col- 
onel Yule says of this section of the Empire that it is an ''Eth- 
nological Garden of tribes of various races and in every stage 
of uncivilization." From 1855 to 1873 much of the province 
was under the rule of the Panthays, a Mohammedan tribe. 

10. Ssu-ch''uan = 'Fo\iT Streams (166,800 square miles, some- 
what larger than the New England and Middle States ; popula- 
tion, 67,712,897, or 406 per square mile). This province, con- 
taining a greater area and population than any other in the 
Empire, derives its name from four important rivers which flow 
south into the Yang-tzu. Its western portion is a succession of 



156 APPENDIX A 



mountain-ranges, sparsely settled and unproductive, and in- 
habited by barbarous tribes. The triangular eastern portion 
teems with life and is one of the most prosperous sections of the 
Empire, save in times of unusual drought or flood, when rob- 
bery, riots, and even cannibalism add to the general wretched- 
ness. Its brine wells and the natural gas used to evaporate the 
salt are famous, and have made perhaps the greatest demand on 
Chinese perseverance and ingenuity. Its abounding clouds and 
mists and .the large quantities of silk and wax exported are 
other distinguishing features. Catholic missions have flourished 
here for many decades and recent Protestant effort has proven 
very successful, in spite of occasional outbreaks and the de- 
struction of mission property. 

11. ^aw-5M = Voluntary Reverence — derived, like Chiang-su, 
from the names of two leading cities (125,450 square miles, 
somewhat larger than New Mexico ; population, 9,285,377, or 74 
per square mile). Kan-su is second in size and next to the low- 
est in sparseness of population among the provinces. Except in 
the eastern part, it is little else than ''a howling wilderness of 
sand or snow." As its central portion commands the passage 
into Central Asia, it is of great strategic importance to the Em- 
pire. This province was seriously affected by the great Moham- 
medan rebellion led by Yakub Beg and quelled by General Tso in 
1877. Williams thus writes of this conquest : '' During the early 
years of the campaign it appears that the soldiers were made to 
till the ground as well as construct fortifications. The history 
of the advance of this ' agricultural army ' would, if thoroughly 
known, constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in 
the annals of any modern country." 

12. Shen-hsi = Western Defiles (67,400 square miles, size of 
Missouri; population, 8,432,193, or 126 per square mile). This 
purely agricultural province is remarkable as having contained 
Hsi-an Fu, the capital of the Empire for more than 2,000 years. 
It is in that city that the famous Nestorian Christian Tablet was 
erected. It ranks next to Peking in importance, and the valley 
of the Wei River, in which it stands, has been more closely con- 
nected with the fortunes of the Chinese race than any other por- 
tion of China. 

13. Shan-hsi = West of the Hills (56,268 square miles, size of 
Illinois; population, 12,211,453, or 221 per square mile). More 
than half this area is a plateau, elevated more than a mile above 
sea-level, and constituting a vast coal-field. Iron of great purity 
is also very abundant, so that here are probably found the most 
remarkable coal and iron regions of the world. It has been 
estimated that, at the present rate of consumption, Shan-hsi 
could supply coal to the entire globe for thousands of years. It 
is further remarkable as being the original seat of the Chinese 
people, and for sending out into the Empire, and even into 
Japan and America, a multitude of shrewd bankers. The people 



APPENDIX A 157 



in general, however, are great opium-eaters and are poor. Fam- 
ine is frequent, owing to lack of moisture. In the north rises 
the sacred mountain of the Buddhists, Wu-t'ai Shan, a popular 
resort for the Mongols of the north and west. Mission work is 
actively prosecuted in the southern half of the province. 

14. Ho-nan =; South of the Kiver, ^.e., the Yellow River {^Q^- 
913 square miles, size of Washington; population, 22,115,827, 
or 340 per square mile). Leaving the provinces lying on China's 
boundary, we take up those of the interior. Some of the most 
fertile parts of the Great Plain lie within Ho-nan, and for that 
reason and because of its central position, it was anciently 
known as the Middle Flowery Land and later as the Middle 
Kingdom. This is historic territory, and from the earliest times 
has been the scene of feudal and imperial strife and of literary 
triumphs as well. On this plain communication is largely de- 
pendent on the wheelbarrow, some of them with sails, to which 
Milton refers in the lines ; 

*• The barren plains 
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive 
With sails and wind their cany waggons light." 

15. An-hui = Peace and Plenty — coming from the names of 
two principal cities (48,461 square miles, size of North Carolina; 
population, 20,596,288, or 425 per square mile). Though its 
southern half contains most productive soil and a great quantity 
of tea is produced, the province suffered so unspeakably during 
the T'ai P4ng rebellion that years will still be required before it 
regains its former prosperity. Baron von Richtofen writes ; 
'' The exuberant fertility of the soil in the lower portions of 
the province is not excelled by anything I have seen in temper- 
ate climates. ... I have walked for miles through fields 
of hemp, the stalks of which were from eleven to thirteen feet 
high." 

16. Chiang-hsi = West of the River (72,176 square miles, size 
of West Virginia and North Carolina combined ; population, 24,- 
534,118, or 340 per square mile). This mountainous province 
is said to resemble in sections the north counties of England. 
Within its borders were the great porcelain manufactories of 
the Sung dynasty, which as recently as 1850 employed a million 
workmen and still supply all the fine ware used in the country. 
The Vale of the White Deer, on the western side of Lake 
P'o-yang, is a favorite place of pilgrimage for Chinese literati, as 
in this vale Chu Hsi, the great philosopher and commentator on 
Confucius, lived and taught in the twelfth century. 

17. Eu-p ei=^ovth of Jjgike [T'ung-ting] (70,450 square miles, 
size of North Dakota; population, 34,244,685 — ''Statesman's 
Year-Book, 1898 " in error in its number — or 473 per square 
mile). A plain constitutes a large part of this province, and an- 
other noticeable feature is the Han River, flowing from its north- 



158 APPENDIX A 



western boundary to the Yang-tzu. At this junction lies a trio 
of cities, Han-kou, Wu-ch^ang and Han-yang, which are of 
great importance commercially and otherwise. It is to Han-kou 
that the first great trunk line railroad is likely to extend from 
Peking. Some of the most magnificent scenery in the world is 
found in the Yang-tzu gorges between I-ch^ang and the Ssii- 
ch'uan border. In some portions the narrowed river runs over 
rapids, through canyons, the walls of which rise to a height of 
more than a thousand feet. While its southwestern prefecture 
has an illiterate population, it was so powerful a factor in 
early and feudal history that native scholars regard it very 
highly. 

18. //i^-?ia7i= South of Lake [T'ung-ting] (74,320 square miles, 
somewhat smaller than Ohio and Indiana combined ; population, 
21,002,604, or 282 per square mile). Mainly a country of hills, 
which segregate the people into small communities, its population 
has a reputation for violence and rudeness, especially the boat 
people and the inhabitants of the southern portion. On the other 
hand, Hu-nan has an enviable reputation for its men of letters, 
and the inhabitants in many sections are more prosperous than 
those of other provinces. A vast anthracite and bituminous 
coal-field, as extensive as that of Pennsylvania, is a source of 
prospective wealth. This province has been the hot-bed of anti- 
foreign sentiment, and the instigator, through its scurrilous pub- 
lications, of the anti-Christian riots. Only recently have mis- 
sionaries been allowed to labor there, and already some have 
sealed their testimony with their blood. 

19. Kuei'Cliou=^'^o\AQ Province (64,554 square miles, size of 
the two Virginias ; population, 7,669,181, or 118 per square mile). 
In spite of its name, this province ''is on the whole the poorest 
of the eighteen in the character of its inhabitants, amount of 
its products, and development of its resources." Malaria, 
caused by stagnant water and impure wells, and the rude races 
of Miao-tzu have brought Kuei-chou into disrepute. Yet it 
claims to possess the largest quicksilver deposits in the world, 
and produces an abundance of coarse silk. 



APPENDIX B 

Prominent Events of the Historic Dynasties.— Instead 
of attempting to thread the wearisome mazes of Chinese history, 
only a few outstanding facts concerning the principal dynasties 
will be given. 

1. Though the first two of the historical dynasties do not 
wholly deserve the name, there are facts connected with the 
earlier one that should be mentioned. Yii the Great, the 
founder of the Hsia dynasty, is the hero of an early Chinese 
flood — probably an unprecedented overflow of the Yellow Kiver. 
While we need not believe that '' Yii was 9.2 cubits high," nor 
that ''at that time heaven rained down gold three days," we 
must believe that he possessed rare skill as a hydraulic engineer. 
With him came a change in the principle of succession to the 
throne, which thenceforth was to be hereditary within the reign- 
ing family. Then also arose the feudal state — Yii divided his 
realm into nine principalities — which existed during three dynas- 
ties until 255 B.C. This system was much like that prevailing 
in Europe during the Middle Ages. 

2. The third dynasty^ and the longest on the throne, the 
Chou, not only boasted of its great men. King Wu, its founder, 
Duke Chou, and China's three great philosophers, Lao-tzii, 
Confucius, and Mencius, but it was the time when new emphasis 
was laid on the five relations of society, when fines leading to 
bribery became common, when the seal character was invented, 
and when the state of morals sunk from bad to worse in spite 
of the persistent efforts of the Empire's greatest reformers. 
During this period the Tartars began those predatory incursions 
that were later to prove so serious a menace. 

3. Succeeding the Chou came the ChHn dynasty. The feudal 
state of Ch'in had been prominent for centuries, and toward 
the close of the preceding dynasty, when seven principalities 
contended for the supremacy, Ch4n was victorious. Though 
the family occupied the throne for less than fifty years, it was at 
this time that the Great Wall was completed, the books burned 
and scholars slaughtered or exiled, and the feudal states fused 
into a truly imperial mass. The Empire under this dynasty 
included nearly all the territory now known as China Proper. 

4. An honored designation of the Chinese to-day is Sons or 
Men of Han, a name derived from the Han dynasty^ which, 
with the Eastern and Later Han, reigned two centuries before 

159 



i6o 



APPENDIX B 



the Christian era, and somewhat longer after it. This is tlie 
formative period of Chinese polity and institutions, the time 
when the development of commerce, arts, and literature — espe- 
cially history and philosophy — advanced with rapid strides, and 
when good government, based on a penal code, was established. 
The system of competitive examinations for office began with 
the founder of the Han, and tliis is another reason why this 
dynasty has been the most popular in Chinese history. Buddhism 
was officially introduced into the Empire during the reign of the 
sixteenth Han emperor. 

5. The period of the Ban Kuo^ or three warring states of tlie 
tliird centur}', has been made very famous, not because of its 
intrinsic importance, but by reason of a notable historical novel, 
'^ The History of the Three States," which, like Scott's writings, 
'' has impressed the events and actors of those days upon the 
popular mind more tlian any history in the language." 

6. During the 300 years following a.d. 020, occurs one of the 
most illustrious periods in China's remarkable past. The T'^ang 
dynasty is distinguished for having seen the introduction of 
Nestorian Christianity and Mohammedanism, for being the 
Golden Age of Chinese poetry, and for its territorial expansion, 
so that Korea became a national possession on the east, and Per- 
sia, in the remote west, asked assistance of the Middle Kingdom. 
Southern China dates its civilization and incorporation into the 
Chinese rule from the days of the glorious T'angs. 

7. When Europe was experiencing its darkest midnight, in 
the decades preceding the dread millennial year, the splendors of 
the Sung dynasty burst upon the Orient. If the T^ang writers 
had been poets, those of Sung might be called philosophers and 
representatives of China's Augustan Age of Literature ; at least 
it was at this time that Chu Hsi flourished, and a host of other 
authors who had begun to inquire into the nature and use of 
things. One result of such inquiry and discussion was the un- 
successful trial of socialistic principles. '' It is under the Sung 
dynasty that the language ' is supposed to reach its acme, to have 
become complete in all its formal and material equipment, hav- 
ing everything needful to make it an effective instrument for ex- 
pressing the national mind;' and works on philosophy of great 
and permanent value were produced." For more than a hundred 
years preceding their dethronement the Sung emperors were 
harassed beyond measure by the incursions of the Chins, the 
ancestors of the present Manchu dynasty. They at one time 
held the territory north of the Yellow Kiver, and even penetrated 
to the banks of the Yang-tzu. 

8. A little more than 600 years ago, after an independent ex- 
istence of more than 3,000 years, the Yuan or Mongol dynasty 
brought the Chinese under their first foreign domination. " That 
vivacious gossip and prince of travellers, Marco Polo," has made 
this dynasty most fully known in his story of the famous Kublai 



APPENDIX B i6l 



Knan, who deepened and lengthened the Grand Canal. Professor 
Douglas thus writes concerning Kublai : '' Never in the history 
of China was the nation more illustrious, nor its power more 
widely felt, than under his sovereignty. ... At this time 
his authority was acknowledged from the Frozen Sea almost to 
the Straits of Malacca. With the exception of Hindustan, 
Arabia, and the westernmost parts of Asia, all the Mongol 
princes, as far as the Dnieper, declared themselves his vassals, 
and brought regularly their tribute." 

9. With the overthrow of the Mongols, the throne once more 
reverted to the Chinese, and the Ming or Bright dynasty ruled 
the Empire for nearly three centuries. The first Ming emperor, 
the son of a laboring man, soon won all hearts by catering to the 
higher classes through the promotion of literature and the estab- 
lishment of libraries in great cities, and by a lavish distribution 
of salt to the poorer classes. The temporary occupation of Nan- 
king as the capital, repairs on the Great Wall, the coming of the 
Portuguese, and the arrival of the Jesuit missionaries were 
events of importance in this dynasty, as also the framing of a 
code of laws that has been the basis of subsequent administra- 
tion. Northern border invasions increased in violence in the 
latter part of this period, and internal rebellion led to the capture 
of Peking by a rebel leader, and the suicide of the Emperor. 
In despair, a Chinese general in the northeast besought the assist- 
ance of the Manchus, with the result that the rebellion was 
quelled, and the further result that the Manchu camel refused 
to leave the tent into which he had been encouraged to thrust his 
nose. 

10. Thus it happened that the present Ta CJiHng or Pure 
dynasty came from Manchuria, on the northeast, into China, 
and have remained its foreign rulers for more than two hundred 
and fifty years, since 1644. Under the nine Ch'ing emperors 
China has gradually emerged from her haughty seclusion of 
ages, and is perforce taking her place in the great family of 
nations. Some of the important events marking the reigns of 
this dynasty are the early educational work and the imperial 
surveys of the Catholic missionaries, the splendid literary monu- 
ments left by the famous Emperor, K'ang Hsi, the extension of 
power in the west and northwest, the wars with Russia, England, 
and France, and with Mohammedan rebels, the pseudo-Christian 
T'ai P4ng rebellion, and the inroads in 1897-98 of Western Pow- 
ers, the ultimate issue of which cannot yet be surely predicted. 
The most marked characteristic of this century's history, so far 
as the Kingdom of God is concerned, is the beginning and rapid 
spread of Protestant missions throughout the Eighteen Provinces 
and Manchuria. 



APPENDIX 

Scheme for Studying Denominational Missionary Work in 
China. — As some denominational classes have desired to study in 
connection with each lesson the work of their denomination in 
China, the following outline for such study is given. Informa- 
tion covering all or most of the points named can be secured 
from the denominational missionary board, or from the article 
on the board in the *' Encyclopaedia of Missions." That these 
supplementary studies may be most helpful, it is suggested that 
they be prepared in writing and on paper of uniform size, that 
the several reports may be bound as a manuscript volume, to be 
kept as a permanent contribution to the institution's missionary 
library. Not more than ten minutes need be given at each class 
session to this supplementary work. The number of minutes 
following each division in the outlines below denotes the length 
of each paper, one hundred and fifty words being allowed per 
minute. If this scheme is followed out, the members of the 
class will have co-operatively prepared a manuscript supple- 
mentary volume equal to nearly two and a half chapters of the 
text-book. 

Supplementary Study I. — Beginnings. 

I. Causes leading to the board's entering China, 2 minutes* 

II. The first missionaries sent out, S minutes, 

1. Their names and number. 

2. Previous history and training. 

III. Date of establishment of first station. 

IV. Its location ; description of town, 2 minutes. 

V. View of situation on arrival derived from early letters or 
reports, 3 minutes. 

Supplementary Study II. — Occupation of the Field. 

I. Province or provinces now occupied, 2 minutes, 

1. Location on sketch map. 

2. Items additional to the provincial descriptions in Appen- 
dix A of the text-book. 

II. Cities and villages containing stations or outstations, 3 
minutes. 

1. Indicate these on sketch map. 

2. Distinguishing characteristics of cities occupied. 

162 



APPENDIX C 163 



III. The people labored for, 3 minutes. 

1. Population accessible to missionaries. 

2. Their language or dialects, 

3. Friendliness or hostility to foreigners (avoiding items 
mentioned in Study VI. below). 

IV. The workers. 

1. Number of men and women missionaries employed. 

2. Number of male and female assistants. 

V. Other boards occupying same cities, 2 minutes. 

1. Are relations between these boards helpful or preju- 
dicial to the work ? 

2. If prejudicial, study the province to see what other 
centres can be properly occupied. 

Supplementary Study III. — Present Workers. 

I. Roll of all present members, if fifteen or less, with brief 
characterization of each, 6 minutes, 

II. If more numerous, omit above and select four of the 
most prominent missionaries, not neglecting the women, and 
give a minute and a half account of each, reporting only strik- 
ing characteristics, 6 minutes, 

III. If possible, give a two-minute sketch of most prominent 
native helper, and one of same length of prominent Bible wom- 
an, 4 minutes. 

Supplementary Study IV. — Medical, Educational, and 
Evangelistic Work. 

I. Medical work of the board, 3 minutes. 

1. Show on sketch map location of dispensaries, hospitals, 
or opium refuges. 

2. Briefly describe most interesting and fruitful medical 
case. 

II. Educational work, 3 minutes. 

1. Locate on sketch map the mission's schools. 

2. Character and aim of schools of different grades. 

III. Evangelistic labors, 4 minutes, 

1. Brief description of outside chapels. 

2. Location of churches on map. 

3. Describe briefly and graphically Chinese preaching. 

Supplementary Study V. — Woman's Work and Other 
Special Efforts. 

I. Word-picture of home visitation, 2 minutes, 

II. Girls' schools, 2 minutes, 

1. Description. 

2. Value to the mission. 



l64 APPENDIX C 



III. Work of Bible women, 2 minutes. 

1. What they do. 

2. Why their services are essential for efficiency. 

IV. Station classes for women, 2 minutes. 

1. Studies pursued. 

2. Interesting case from such classes. 

V. Other lines of work carried on by mission, 2 minutes, 

1. Work named and located on map. 

2. Aim of each of these departments of service. 



Supplementary Study VI. — Obstacles Encountered. 

I. Obstacles in the missionaries* private life, 3 minutes. 

1. Difficulty of language study. 

2. Lack of harmony or helpfulness among missionaries. 

II. Obstacles arising from un-Christian foreigners, 3 minutes. 

1. Example of sailors and travellers. 

2. Life of un-Christian foreign residents. 

3. Difficulties due to attitude of Western Powers. 

III. Obstacles arising from lieathen environment, 4 minutes. 

1. Missionaries tempted by exasperating experiences with 
natives. 

2. Harmful effect of lieathenism upon missionary's spir- 
ituality. 

3. Open and subtle temptations besetting native Christians. 

4. Opposition and persecution coming to native Christians 
and churches. 

Supplementary Study VII. — Results op the Board's 
Work in China. 

I. Statistical results, 1 minute. 

II. Character transformations, 4 minutes. 

1. Case of male convert most remarkable in this respect. 

2. Case of most conspicuous transformation of a woman. 

III. Effect of the work upon the community, 5 minutes, 

1. Material improvement effected. 

2. Social changes becoming apparent. 

3. Effects of board's educational work. 

4. Influence of native churches on the community. 



Supplementary Study VIII. — What Can This Class Do 
TO Aid the Work ? 

I. Pray for the work, 4 minutes, 

1. Present important data to stimulate prayer. 

2. Enter definite objects upon prayer list or cycle. 



APPENDIX C 165 



II. Give to its support, 2 minutes, 

1. Describe special work recommended by the board for 
class support. 

2. Formulate plan for systematic giving to the board. 

III. Champion the interests of China, 2 minutes. 

1. In churches attended by students at college. 

2. In home church. 

3. In addressing other churches and young peoples* so- 
cieties. 

IV. Reasons for personal devotion to the board's work in 
China, 2 minutes. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX 

Besides Indicating the location of important topics, this Index is also 
intended for use in preparing the various studies. Having read over its 
analytical outline before taking up each chapter, the student sees exactly 
what ground is covered by the section to be mastered. So, too, after hav- 
ing studied the chapter, its outline can again be used in lieu of questions 
put by a teacher, thus enabling the student to see what topics have been 
forgotten. The numerals following each topic and sub-topic refer to the 
pages where they may be found. 

CHAPTER I 

THE WORLD OP THE CHINESE 

I. Scope o the text-book, 1. 
n. Names applied to China, 1-3. 

1. Early Occidental names, 1, 2. 

(1) Names given it by land-route travellers, 2. 

(2) Names derived from the Southern route, 2. 

2. Signification of native names for China, 2, 3. 
ni. China's place in Asia, 3. 

rV". Areas with some comparisons, 3, 4. 

1. Area of Empire, with equivalents, 3, 4. 

2. Area of China Proper and American equivalent as to position, 4. 
V. Striking physical features, 4-9. 

1. China's waterways, 5, 6. 

(1) The Huang Ho, 5. (2) The Yang-tzii, 6, 6. 

2. Cliinese lakes, 6. 

3. Mountain ranges, 6. 

4. The Great PMn, 6, 7. 

(1) Location and size, 6, 7. (2) Its populousness, 7. 

5. Loess formation of China, 7, 8. 

(1) Description, 7, 8. (2) Two drawbacks, 8. 

6. Chinese scenery, 8, 9. 

(1) General characterization, 8. (2) Nearer view, 8, 9. 
VI. Climatic conditions, 9, 10. 

1. Temperature and isothermal lines, 9. 

2. Rainfall and Northern winters, 9. 

3. Diseases as related to foreigners, 9, 10. 

Vn. Wealth of the Empire, 10, 11. 

1. Agricultural resources, 10. 

2. Aquatic wealth, 10. 

3. Mineral productions, 10. 

4. Abundant supply of superior laborers, 11. 
VIII. Chinese view of the world, 11-14. 

1. Prevalent ignorance concerning their own country, 11, 

2. The extra-Chinese world, 11, 12. 

(1) Chinese maps, 11, 12. (2) Common ideas about foreign lands, 
12. 

167 



l68 ANALYTICAL INDEX 



3. Foreigners at close range, 12, 13. 

(1) Foreign sins, 12. (2) Merchants and diplomats, 12, 13. (3) Mis- 
sionaries, 13. 

4. These prejudices decreasing, 14. 



CHAPTER n' 

CraNA'S INHERIT ANCB TROM THB PAST 

I. Character of Chinese hiBtorical records, 15, 16. 

1. Credibility of Chinese history, 15. 

2. Sources from which it is derived, 15, 16. 

(1) Bamboo books, 15. (2) Classics, 15. (3) Local annals, 15. 
(4) Dynastic histories, 16. 

3. Literary character of these writings, 16. 
n. China's prehistoric dawn, 16-19. 

1. The mythological ages, 16, 17. 

(1) Duration, 16. (2) Cosmogony, 17. (3) Five early rulers, 17. 

2. The legendary period, 17, 18. 

(1) Duration, 17. (2) Chinese views of this period, 17. (3) Why 
Confucius made such large use of its history, 18. 

3. Residuum of fact underlying these two periods, 18, 19. 

(1) Civilization possessed, 18. (2) Origm of the Chinese, 18. (3) 
Origin of their culture, 18, 19. 
in. Key characters in Chinese history, 19-23. 

1. Some prominent rulers, 19, 20. 

2. Philosophers and literary men, 20, 21. 

3. Illustrious women of China, 21-23. 

(1) Reasons for renown, 21, 22. (2) Examples, 22, 23, 
rV. Present-day survivals of China's past, 23-27. 

1. Survivals in material form, 23, 24. 

(1) Great Wall, 23. (2) Grand Canal, 23, 24. (3) Roads and 
bridges, 24. (4) Other minor survivals, 24. 

2. Institutions and inventions of early times, 24-26. 

(1) Government, 25. (2) Many arts and trades, 25. (3) Compass, 
gunpowder, and printing, 25, 26. (4) Silk and porcelain 
manufactures, 26. 

3. Literary treasures, 26, 27. 

(1) Language and literature, 26, 27. (2) Educational system, 27. 
V. Some secrets of China's protracted existence, 27-31. 

1. Protection from external foes, 27, 28. 

(1) Physical baniers, 27, 28. (2) Isolating language, 28. (3) 
Masses to be overcome, 28. 

2. National characteristics tending to perpetuity, 28. 

3. Internal resources satisfactory, 28, 29. 

4. Safeguards against internal conflict and decay, 29, 30. 

(1) Duty of warrantable rebellion, 29. (2) Peaceful rewards for 
ambition, 29. (3) National characteristics hostile to decay, 
29, 30. 

5. Government and laws favorable, 30. 

6. God's purpose in China's long existence, 30, 31. 
VI, The dawn of a new era, 31. 



CHAPTER in 

"THE REAL CHINAMAN" 

I. Numbers and distribution, 32, 33. 

(1) Statistics, 32. (2) Reasons for defective census, 32, 33. (8) 
Densely populated regions, 33. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX 1 69 



n. Characteristics of the Chinese, 33-39. 

1. Physical characteristics, 33-35. 

(1) Tibetans, 33, 34. (2) Mongols, 34. (3) Miao-tzu, 34. (4) 
Manchus, 34. (5) Chinese, 35. 

2. Emotional characters, 35, 36. 

3. Intellectual qualities and products, 36-39. 
m. Sociological environment of the Chinese, 39-45. 

1. Home and clan life, 39-42. 

(1) Oriental differentiae, 39, 40. (2) Villages and their daily routine, 
40. (3) Food as affected by poverty, 41. (4) Sumptuary 
laws ; clothing, 41. (5) Birth, marriage, death, 41, 42. 

2. Cities and their life, 42-44. 

(1) Sights and sounds, 42, 43. (2) City interiors, 43. (3) Social 
parasites, 43. (4) Unfortunates and defectives, 43, 44. 

3. Government and laws, 44, 45. 

(1) Makers of law, 44, 45. (2) Its administration, 45. 
IV. Industrial life of the Empire, 45-47. 

1. Gradations in society, 45, 46. 

2. Industries and wages, 46, 4T. 

3. Trade organizations, 47. 

V. Amusements and festivals, 47^9. 

1. Amusements and sports, 47, 48. 

2. Festivals, 48, 49. 

VI. The Chinese as painted by themselves, 49-51. 

1. Children in proverbs, 49. 

2. Looking out into life, 49, 50. 

3. Marriage and family life, 50. 

4. Moral maxims, 50, 51. 



CHAPTER rV 

RELIGIONS OP THE CHTNESB 

I. Nature-worship, 52-57. 

1. Fetiches, 52. 

2. Totem worship, 52-54. 

3. Animal worship, 54. 

4. Worship of ancestors, 54-56. 

(1) Its central position, 54, 55. (2) Its basis, 65. (3) Its benefits, 
55, 56. (4) Its evils, 56. 

5. Worship of deified heroes, 56. 

6. Worship of Shang Ti, 56, 57. 
II. Taoism and its founder, 57-60. 

1. Its founder, Lao-tzu, 57. 

2. Its Scripture and its teachings, 57, 58. 

3. Later Taoist leaders, 58, 59. 

4. Its awful degradation, 59. 

5. The Taoism of to-day, 59, 60. 
m. Confucius and Confucianism, 00-67. 

1. Items from his life, 60-62. 

2. Character of Confucius, 62, 63. 

3. Confucian literature, 63-65. 

(1) The Four Books, 63, 64. (2) The Five Classics, 64, 65. 

4. Confucian teachings, 65, 66. 

(1) Their general character, 65. (2) The Five Relations, Five 
Constants, and the Chtin-tzu JCn, 65, 66. (3) Is Confucian- 
ism wholly atheistic ? 66. 

5. Modem Confucianism, 66, 67. 

6. The worship of Confucianism, 67. 
IV. Buddhism, or the sect of Fo, 67-73. 

1. Introduction into China, 67, 68. 

2. Spread of Buddhism, 68. 



I70 ANALYTICAL INDEX 



3. Popular Buddhistic doctrines, 68-71. 

(1) Greneral character, 68. (2) Belief concerning Buddha, 68. (3) 
His laws, 68, 69. (4) Metempsychosis, 69. (5) Heaven, 69, 
TO. (6) Hells, 70. (7) Salvation. 70, 71. 

4. The Buddhist priesthood, 71. 
6. Their temples and pagodas, 71. 

6. The worship, 71, 72. 

7. Buddhist deities, 72, 73. 
Chinese Geomancy, 73, 74. 

1. Its original and later objects of care, 73. 

2. The real power behind it, 73. 

3. Principles of Gteomaucy, 73, 74. 

4. Evidences of the power of this system, 74. 



CHAPTER V 

PREPARATION AND BEGINNINGS 

I. Ancient moral and religious conditions, 75. 

(1) Confucianism, 75. (2) Taoism, 75. (3) Buddhism, 75. 
n. The secret sects, 76, 77. 

1. Reasons for their helpfulness, 76. 

2. Doctrines of various sects, 76, 77. 

3. Character of sect members as converts, 77. 
m. The Jews in China, 77-79. 

1. Names, 77. 

2. Facts in their histoiy, 78. 

3. Present number and condition, 78, 79. 
IV. Chinese Mohammedanism, 79-81. 

1. Entrance into China, in North and South, 79, 80. 

2. Its increase and reasons therefor, 80. 

3. Present status and practices, 80, 81. 

4. Doubtful value to Christianity, 81, 
V. Nestorian Christianity, 81-84. 

1. Entrance into the Empire, 81. 

2. Nestorian Monument and its testimony, 81, 82. 

3. Doctrines taught, 82, 83. 

4. Later history of Nestorianism, 83. 

5. Nestorianism's value to the modern missionary, 83, 84. 
VI. Catholicism's first stadium in China, 84r-86. 

1. First great Catholic missionary there, 84, 85. 

2. Labors of his successors, 85. 

3. Catholicism's lost opportunity, 85, 86. 
Vn. The second Catholic entrance, 86-93. 

1. Ricci, Catholicism's most famous Chinese missionary, 86-89. 

(1) Early efforts, 86, 87. (2) Life in Peking, 87. (3) His literary 
labors, 87, 88. (4) Decision of certain questions, 88. (5) 
His character, 88, 89. 

2. Later Catholic leaders and rivalries, 89. 

3. Period of eclipse, 89. 

4. History since 1858, 90. 

5. Catholic methods, 90, 91. 

(1) Adaptiveness, 90. (2) Practical charities, 90. (3) Native con- 
verts and their use by the Church, 90, 91. (4) Defects of con- 
verts and missionaries, 91. 

6. Catholicism's relation to Protestantism, 91, 92. 

7. Strength of Chinese Catholicism, 92, 93. 

(1) Milne's testimony, 92. (2) Dr. Medhurst'e, 92, 93. (3) Dietri- 
bution and numbers, 93. 
Vm. The Greek Church in China, 93, 94. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX 1 71 

CHAPTER VI 

THE PROTESTANT OCCUPATION OP CHINA 

I. Morrison, Protestantism's pioneer, 95-97. 

1. Early years and preparation, 95, 96. 

2. Life and services in China, 96, 9T. 
n. War and Chinese missions, 97-102. 

1. The Opium War, 97, 98. 

(1) Occasion, 97. (2) Character, 97, 98. (3) Resnlts, 98. 

2. The T'ai P'ing Rebellion, 98, 99. 

(1) Its leader and its course, 98, 99. (2) Its significance, 99. 

3. The Arrow War, 100, 101. 

(1) Origin and results, 100. (2) The French Treaty, 100, 101. (3) 
Obstacles, 101. 
4. Other wars, actual and threatened, 101, 102. 

(1) Tientsin massacre, 101. (2) Margary's murder, 102. (3) 
French war, 102. (4) Ripts, 102. 
m. Stages of missionary progress, 102-110. 

1. Preparatory stage, 1807-1842, 102, 103. 

(1) Preparatory efforts, 102, 103. (2) Work outside China Proper, 
103. (3) Results, 103. 

2. Years of entrance, 1842-1860, 103-107. 

(1) Field of labor, 103. (2^ Nature of work, 103, 106. (3) Con- 
verts, 106. (4) Missionaries, 106. (5) Results, 106, 107. 

3. Development and wider entrance, 1860-1877, 107. 

(1) Advances noted, 107. (2) Statistical results, 107. 

4. Between the Conferences of 1877 and 1890, 108. 

(1) Key-words of the period, 108. (2) Famine and self-support, 
108. (3) Statistics of 1890, 108, 109. 

5. The eight years since 1890, 109, 110. 

(1) Results of the Conference, 109. (2) Other events, 109, 110. 
IV. Missionary geography, 110-112. 

1. How far the provinces have been entered, 110, 111. 

2. Character of places occupied. 111. 

3. Density of population and missionary distribution, 111, 112. 

4. Territory still unoccupied, 112. 

V. Some China missionary statistics, 112, 113. 

1. Number and nationality of organizations there, 112. 

2. Missionary force. 

(1) National totals, 112, 113. (2) Analysis of net total, 113. 

3. Stations and the work done in them, 113. 
VI. Additional agencies, 113-115. 

1 Tract societies 114 

* (1) Names and aim's, 114. (2) The S. D. C. G. K., 114. (3) Book- 
lending societies, 114. 
2. Mission presses and their work, 114, 115. 



CHAPTER Vn 

THE MISSI0NARIB8 AT WORK 

The human agen t in missions, 116, 117. 

1. Language preparation, 116. 

2. General usefulness in early months, 116, 117. 

3. Heart preparation for usefulness, 117. 

4. Study of the people, 117. 

Efforts for China's physical alleviation, 117-119. 
1. Medical work, 117, 118. 

(1) Immediate usefulness, 117. (2) Dispensaries and hospitals, 
117, 118. (3) Women physicians, 118. 



172 ANALYTICAL INDEX 



2. Famine relief and its consequences, 118. 

3. Missionary agitation of reforms, 118. 

(1) Opium curse, 118. (2) Foot-binding, 118. 

4. Defectives and foundlings, 118, 119. 
m. Educational work, 119-122. 

1. Day-schools, 119, 120. 

(1) Pupils and instruction, 119. (2) Support, 119, 120. 

2. Boarding-schools, 120. 

(1) Their advantages. 120. (2) Studies pursued, 120. 

3. Mission colleges, ]20, 121. 

(1) Scope and character, 120, 121. (2) English study, 121. (3) 
Criticism of colleges, 121. 

4. Industrial education and its value, 122. 

5. Education for Christian service, 122. 

(1) Station-classes, 122. (2) Theological schools, 122. 
rV". Literature in Chinese Missions, 123, 124. 

1. Preparation of literature, 123. 

2. Manufacture of books, 123, 124. 

3. Distribution of Christian books, 124. 
V. Evangelistic work, 124-127. 

1. Individual work : higher classes ; women, 124, 125. 

2. Chapel preaching. 125, 126. 

(1) Chapels and audience, 125. (2) Services and results, 125, 126. 

3. Evangelistic itineration, 126, 127. 

(1) visitation of cities, 126. (2) Village itineration, 126, 127. 
(3) Systematic attempts, 127. 
VI. The native Church, 127-131. 

1. Churches and services described, 127, 128. 

2. Chinese Sunday-schools, 128. 

3. Young people's societies and Y. M. C. A., 128. 

4. Discipline and its causes, 128, 129. 

5. Problem of self-support, 121), 130. 

(1) Obstacles in China, 129. (2) Evils of the old policy, 129, 130. 

6. Self-propagation of the Church, 130. 

7. Question of denominationalism, 130, 131. 
VII. Occasional efforts, 131, 132. 

1. Value of conventions and conferences, 131. 

2. Efforts for the literati, 131, 132. 

(1) Lectures, 132. (2) Museums, 132. (3) Literature, 132. 
Vin. The needs of missionaries, converts, and the masses, 132, 133. 



OHAPTEK Vin 

THE DAWN 

I. Signs of dawn, 134-138. 

1. The awakening not temporary, 134. 

2. China's open doors, 134, 135. 

3. Entrance of the outer world's life and work. 135. 

4. Hu-nan's awakening a signal proof of dawn, 135, 136. 

5. Signs of an intellectual awakening, 136-138. 

(1) Changes in government examinations, 136, 137. (2) Non-gov- 
ernmental agitation for better instruction, 137, 138. 

6. The social awakening, 138. 

(1) Reform societies, 138. (2) Anti-Foot-binding societies, 138. 

7. The religious awakening, 138. 
n. Obscuring clouds, 138-143. 

1. Hostility due to enforced awakening, 139. 

2. Irritation caused by diplomatic protection of converts, 139. 

3. Opposition of literati and oflacials, 139, 140. 

(1) The new learning feared, 139, 140. (2) Hostility to Western 
ideas of integrity, 140. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX 173 



4. Obstacles arising from evils peculiar to China, 140, 141. 

fl) Opium and its evils, 140, 141. (2) Ancestral worship, 141. 

5. Enmity due to manifold forms of sin, 141, 142. 

6. Opposition of Romanism, 142. 

T. Apathy of the Church of God, 142, 143. 
ni. Rival forces striving for China, 143-146. 

1. Materialism, 143, 144. 

(1) Old tendencies, 143, 144. (2) New temptations, 144. 

2. European domination, 144, 145. 

(1) Methods of the Powers, 144. (2) Disadvantages arising there- 
from, 144, 145. 
8. Confucianism a possible rival, 145. 
4. Christ the ultimate victor, 146. 

(1) Greatness of the prize, 146. (2) Protestantism's duty, 146. 
IV. The morning summons, 146-151. 

1. The call of the multitudes, 146-148. 

(1) China's comparative populousness, 146, 147. (2) These multi- 
tudes suffering and dying, 147, 14S. (3) Their emergency a 
pressing one, 148. 

2. What China calls the missionary to, 148-150. 

(1) A call to heroism, 148, 149. (2) A call to versatility, 149. (3) 
A call to privilege, 149, 150. (4) A call to consecration, 150. 

3. The One who utters these calls, 150, 151. 

(1) His a call of love, 150, 151. (2) The opportunity for a satisfy- 
tng investment of life, 151. 



MAP INDEX 

By means of this index all names of cities and towns can be 
readily found on the map. For hints as to pronunciation see key 
on page xviii. Note the following directions : 

The letters following the names indicate the rank of the place. 
Thus C. means provincial capital ; F. means a fu city ; T., a ting 
city; c, a chou city; h., a hsien city; and m. a market-town or- 
Tillage, or one whose rank could not be ascertained. 

Places in Italics are not occupied as missionary stations. 

The question mark (?) following some of the places indicates^ 
that either their Romanization or rank is unknown to the compiler. 
Numerals following the names of places indicate the board or 
boards having resident missionaries there. The numerals are 
the same as those prefixed to the alphabetical list of missionary 
societies given below. 

The capital letter and numeral following each name at the ex- 
treme right of the column indicate the square on the map where 
the place is located. The capital letters may be found midway 
between the meridians of longitude at the top and bottom mar- 
gins of the map ; the numerals are midway between the parallels 
of latitude at the right and left hand margins of the map. In 
some cases mission stations could not be located on the map, and 
hence the name of the province in which they are has been placed 
in the right-hand margin of the column. 

Provinces are printed in capital letters, thus, Shan-tung, 
and the numerals following their names show what missionary so- 
cieties labor in them. 



I. American Societies (Canada and the United States). 

1. American Baptist Missionary Union. 

2. American Bible Society. 

3. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 

4. American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions. 

5. Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church [South]. 

6. Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in 
the United States [South]. 

7. Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in 
the United States of America [North]. 

175 



176 MAP INDEX 



8. Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in 
America. 

9. Board of Missions of the Reformed Presbyterian [Coven- 
anter] Church. 

10. Christian and Missionary Alliance. 

11. Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Missions. 

12. Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society in the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church in the United States. 

13. Foreign Christian Missionary Society. 

14. Foreign Missionary Society of the Seventh-Day Bap- 
tists. 

15. Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion. 

16. Foreign Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church in 
Canada. 

17. Gospel Baptist Mission. 

18. Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
[North]. 

19. Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Canada. 

20. Student Christian Movement in Mission Lands. 

21. Swedish American Mission, Covenant of America. 

22. United Brethren in Christ. 

23. Woman's Union Missionary Society. 



II. British Societies (Great Britain and Ireland). 

24. Baptist Missionary Society. 

25. Bible Christian Home and Foreign Mission Society. 

26. British and Foreign Bible Society. 

27. Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East. 

28. Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. 

29. Church of Scotland Committee for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

30. Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of Eng- 
land. 

31. Friends' Foreign Mission Association. 

32. London Missionary Society. 

33. Methodist New Connection Missionary Society. 

34. National Bible Society of Scotland. 

35. Presbyterian Church of Ireland Foreign Mission. 

36. Society for Promoting Female Education in the East. 

37. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts. 

38. United Methodist Free Churches Foreign Mission. 

39. United Presbyterian Church of Scotland Foreign Mis- 
sion. 

40. Wesleyan Methodist Mission Society. 



MAP INDEX 



177 



III. Continental Societies. 

41. Berlin Evangelical Missionary Society. 

42. Berlin Woman's Society for China. 

43. Congregational Church of Sweden. 

44. Danish Mission Society. 

45. Evangelical Missionary Society, Basel. 

46. General Evangelical Protestant Missionary Association. 

47. German China Alliance Mission. 

48. Norwegian Lutheran China Mission Association. 

49. Rhenish Missionary Society. 

50. Swedish Mission in China. 



IV. International Societies. 

51. China Inland Mission. 

52. Mission to the Chinese Blind. 

53. Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowl- 
edge among the Chinese. 



Amoy T. (port) 8, 30, 32, 34 E 5 

Anh.2T B3 

An-ch4ng Fu C. 12, 51 E 3 

An-hui, 10, 12, 13, 18, 31, 61. 

An-jen h. 51 E 4 

An-lu F D3 

An-8hun F. 51 C4 

An-tnng h. 51 E 3 

Canton Fn C. (port) 3, 7, 15, 22, 27, 32, 

40, 41 D5 

Chai-ch'i h. 51 F 3 

Chan-hua h. 33 E 2 

Chang-chou F. 8, 32 E 6 

Chang-ch-un m. 35 G 1 

Chang-pa m. (?) 27 C3 

Chang-p'u h. 30 E 5 

Chang-sha Fu C D 4 

Ch'ang-shan h. 51 E 4 

Chang-shu m. 51 E 4 

CTiang-teF. 16 D2 

Ch*ang-te F. 10, 11 D4 

Ch'ang-wu h. 51 C 2 

Chang-yeh h. 10 B 2 

Chao-chia K*ou m. 26, 51 E 3 

Ch'ao-chou F. 1, 30 E 6 

Chao-t'ung F. 25, 51 B 4 

Chao-yang h. 32 F 1 

Che-chianq, 1, 5, 6, 7, 27, 38, 42, 47, 
51. 

12 



Chef 00 (Chih-fu) (port), 7, 37, 51, . .F 2 

Ch'-en-an F C 5 

Chen-Chiang F. (port), 6, 15, 18, 34, 

51 E3 

Ch'enchouF. 51 E3 

Ch'eng-ku h. 51 C 3 

Ch'eng-te {Je-ho) F. El 

Cheng-ting F D 2 

Ch'eng-tu Fu C. 18, 19, 51 B 3 

Cheng-yang Kuan T. 51 E 3 

Chen-yiian h. (Kan-su) 51 C 2 

Chen-yuan F. (Kuei-chou) C 4 

Chic. 51 D2 

Chiac: D2 

Chia-hsing F. 6 F 3 

Chi-anF. 51 E4 

Chiang c. 51 Shan-hsi 

Chiang-hsi, 18,26, 51. 

Chianq-SU, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12. 13, 14, 

15, 18. 20, 23, 26, 27, 32, 34, 46, 51, 

53. 

Chiang-yin h. 6 F 3 

Chia-tmg F. 1 .19, 51 B 4 

Chia-ying c. 1, 45 E5 

Chleh c. (?), 50, 51 D 3 

Chieh-hsiu, 51 Shan-hsi 

Ch'ien c. 51 C 3 

Chien-ch'-ang F E4 

ChienningF. 27, 28 E4 

Chien-p'ing h, 51 E 3 



178 



MAP INDEX 



Chien-te h. 51 E 3 

Chien-yang h. 51 C 3 

Ch'ih-chou F. 51 E 3 

Chih-li, 2, 3, T, 10, 18, 20, 26, 32, 33, 

34, 37, 51, 52. 

Chin c. 36 F 1 

Ch'iuc. 51 C3 

Ch'iug-chiang h. (port), 14, 51 E 3 

ChiDg-tzu Kuan, 51 D 3 

Ch'ina-yiian F C 5 

Chi-nan Fu 0. 7 E 2 

Ching c. (Hu-nan) C 4 

Ching c. (Kan-sn) 51 C 2 

Ch'ing-chou F. 24 E 2 

Ching-ning c. 51 C 2 

Ching-shan h. 32 D 3 

Ch'ing-yang h. 10 E 3 

Ching-yiian ra. (?) 42 Cho-chiang 

Chin-hua F. 1, 51 F 4 

Chi-ning c. 7 E2 

Ch'in-sbou Chiang m. 48 D 3 

Chiu-chiang F. (port), 18, 26, 51.... E 4 

Ch'iU'fu h E2 

Chiungchou F. 7 D 6 

Chou-chih h. 51 C3 

Chou-p'ing h. 24 E 2 

Chou-fang-ao, 41 — D 5 

Ch'uc. 13 E3 

Chii c E2 

Ch'ii h. 51 SsiVch'uau 

Chuang-lang T. B 2 

Chu-chi h. 27 F 4 

Chu-ch'ih D3 

Ch'u-chou F. 47 E 4 

Ch'u-hsiung F B 4 

Chung-ch'ing.F. (port), 2, 18, 31, 32, 

34, 51 C4 

Ch'u-wang, 16 Ho-nan 

Ch'tian-chou F. 30 E 5 

Ch'ii-ching F. 51 B 4 

Ch'u-chou F. 51 E4 

Ch'ii-wuh. 51 D2 

Cheng-bau (?), 23 E 4 

Dang-seng (?), 28 E 4 

Fen-cheng m. 21 D 3 

Fen-chou F. 3 D 2 

Feng-Chen T. 10 D 1 

Feng-hs'iang F. 61 C 3 

Feng-hua h. 51 F 4 

Feng-kang m. 61 E 4 

FO'kang T . .D 5 

Fo-shan T. 40 D 5 

Fu c C2 

Fu-CHIEN, 3, 8, 18, 2T, 28, 30, 32, 34, 

36. 

Fu-ch'ing h. 18, 27 E 4 

Fu-chou Fu C. (port), 3, 18, 2T, 28, 

36 E4 

Fuk-wing (?), 49 D6 

Fu-men m. (?), 49 D 6 

Fu-min-fu m. 35 Sheng-ching 

Fu-ning F. 27 .F 4 



Fu-tsuk-phai (?), 45 D 5 

Fu-yin Ts'un, 24 Shen-hsi 

Hai c E3 

Hai-ch'eng h. 39 F 1 

Han-ch'eng h. 50, 51 D 2 

Han-Chung F. 26, 51 C 3 

Han-ch'uanh. 40 D3 

Hang-chou Fu C. (port), 6, 7, 27. . .F 3 
Han-k'ou h. (port), 12, 32, 34, 40, 

51 D3 

Han-shan h. 10 E 3 

Han-yang F. 1, 40 D 3 

Heng-chou F D 4 

Hoc. 51 D2 

Ho-chien F E 2 

Ho-chHh c C5 

Ho-ching h. 51 D 2 

Ho-k'ou m. 51 E 4 

Hok-su-ha (?) 45 E 5 

Ho-lin-koh-ri T. (?) 10 D 1 

Ho-Ni.N, 16, 26, 51. 

Ho-nan F D 3 

Hongkong, 3, 26, 27, 32, 36, 42, 45.. D 5 

Ho-eu-wan (?) 45 D 5 

Hsic. 51 D2 

Hsiah. 50 D2 

Hsi-an Fu C. 24. 20, 51 C 3 

Hsiang-ch'eng h. 51 D3 

Heiao-chang m. (?) 32 E 2 

Hsiao-ih. 51 D2 

Hsiao-kan h. 32 D 3 

Heiao-mei m. 47 E 4 

Hsieu-yuh. 28 E4 

Hei-feng Chen m. 51. . C 2 

Hsi-hsiang h. 51 C 3 

Heine. 24 D2 

Hsin-ch'ang h. 51 F 4 

Hsinchen, 36 Ho-nan 

Hsin-ch'eng (?) 6 F3 

Heing-an, 51 Shen-hsi 

Hsing-hua F. 18, 27, 28 E 4 

Hsing-i F. 51 C 4 

HBing-p'ing h. 51 C 2 

Hsin-hua h D4 

Hein-hsing h. 15 D 5 

Hsi-ning F. 51 B 2 

Hsin-tien-tzu m. 51 C 3 

Hsin-tu h. 27 B 3 

Hsi-yang (?) 28 E 4 

Hsiian-hua F. 10 Dl 

Hsii-ch'ien h. 6 E3 

Hsti-chou F, (Chiang-8U), 6 E 3 

Hsii-chou F. (Ssu-ch'uan), 1, 51, ...B 4 

Huai-an F. 6 E 3 

Huai-ching F D2 

Huai-lu h. 51 D 2 

Huang h. 15 F 2 

Huang-yen h. 1 F 4 

Hu-chou F.l F3 

Hui-chou F. 51 E 4 

Hui-li c B 4 

Hu-NA>, 10, 11. 

Hung-tung h. 51 D 2 



MAP INDEX 



179 



Hun-3ruan, 51 Shan-hsi 

Hu-PEI, 1, 10, 12, 21 29, 32, 34, 40, 

43, 48, 51. 
Hu-wei, 41 D 5 

lang-kao (?), 10 Shan-hsi 

I-ch'ang F. (port), 12, 29, 43, 51. . ..D 3 

I-chouF. 7 E2 

I-ning c D4 

I-shihh.51 D2 

I-yang h. 51 B 4 

Jao-chou m. 51 Chiang-hsi 

Jen-ts'un m. 3 D 2 

Ju-ning F D 3 

K-ai-feng Fu C D 3 

K''ai-hua F B 5 

K'ai-yiian h. 39 F 1 

Kalgan (Chang-chia K'ou) T, 3, 10 .D 1 

Kan-chou F B 2 

Kang-hou m. (?) 7 D 5 

Kang-pui (?) 49 D 5 

Kan-SU, 10, 51. 

Kao-chou F D 5 

Kao-yu c. 51 E 3 

Khi-tshung (?), 45 D 5 

Kiao c F 2 

KirinC. 35 Gl 

K'-o-lan c D2 

Kuan h. 51 B 3 

Kuang c E 3 

Kuang-chi, 40 Hu-pei 

Kuang-f eng h. 51 E 4 

KUANG-HSI, 10, 15, 26, 40. 

Kuang-nan F C 5 

Kuang-ning h. 35 F 1 

Kuang-te c. 51 E 3 

KUANG-TTXNG, 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 15, 22, 
26, 27, 30, 32, 36, 40, 41, 42, 45, 49. 

Kuang-tzu-kang (?), 40 Hu-pei 

Kuang-ytian h. 51 C 3 

Kuei c D 3 

Kuei-ch'i h. 51 E4 

KUEI-CHOXJ, 51. 

Kuei-chou F D 3 

Kuei-hua T. 10 D 1 

Kuei-Un Fu C D4 

Kuei-p'ing h. 10 C 5 

Kuei'te F E 3 

Kuei-yang c (Hu-nan) D 4 

Kuei-yang Fu C. (Kuei-chou), 51. . . C 4 

Kung-ch'-ang F B 3 

Ku-f ien (Ku-cheng) h. 18, 27, 28. . .E 4 
Kvryiian c C2 

Lai-an h, 51 E 3 

Lai'Chou F. E .2 

Lan-ch'i h. 51 F 4 

Lan-chou Fu C. 51 B 2 

Lan-t'ien h. 51 C 3 

Lao-ho K'ou m. 48, 61 D 3 

Lei-chou F D 5 



Le-ling^h. 33 E 2 

Le-f ing h. 33 E 2 

Li c. (Hu-nan) D 4 

Li h. (Kan-su) C 3 

Liang-chou F. 51 B 2 

Liao-yang c. 39 F 1 

Li-chiang F. B 4 

Lien c. 7 D 5 

Lien-chiang h. 27 E 4 

Lien-hua T. D 4 

LienpHng c D 5 

Li-long ( ? ), 45 D 5 

Lin-an F. B 5 

Lin-chiang F. 51 E 4 

Lin-ch^ing c. 3 E 2 

Ling c C 2 

Ling-wu (?), 6 F3 

Li-pHng F C 4 

Li-t'ang m B 4 

Liu-an c. 51 E 3 

Liu-chou F C 5 

Long-heu (?), 45 D 5 

Lo-tmg c. 10 D 5 

Lo-yiian h. 27, 28 F 4 

Luc. 51 C4 

Lu-an F. 51 D2 

Lu-ch'eng h. 51 D2 

Lu-chou F. 13 E 3 

Lung c. 51 C 2 

Lung-chou T. (port) C 5 

Lung-ch^iian h. 47 E 4 

Macao (port), 10 D5 

Meih. 51 C3 

Meng-tzii h. (port) B 5 

Men-k'ou-liang m. 1 ]6 5 

Mienc. 27 B3 

Mien-chu h. 27 B 3 

Mine. 10 B3 

Min-ch'ing h. 18 E 4 

Mi-yiln h El 

Moi-lim (?), 45 .E5 

Mo-ti-chieh m. 51 D 3 

Mukden C. 26, 35, 39 F 1 

Nan-an F D 4 

Nan-ch'ang Fu C. 51 E 4 

Nan-k'ang F. 51 E 4 

Nanking Fu C. (port), 4, 7, 13. 18. .E 3 

Nan-ning F C 5 

Nan-hsiung c. 41 D 4 

Nan-ling h. 10 E 3 

Nan-wa h. 27 E 4 

Nan-yang F D 3 

Ning-hai h. 51 (Che-chiang) F 4 

Ning-hai c. (Shan-tung) 51 F 2 

Ning-hsia F. 10 C 2 

Ning-kuoF. 51 E3 

Ning-po F. (port), 1, 7, 27, 38, 51. .F 4 

Ning-te h. 27 F 4 

Ning-tuc E 4 

Ning-wu F D 2 

Ning-yiian F. B 4 

Niu-ch'-uang 7i.'(port) F 1 



i8o 



MAP INDEX 



Nodoa m. (?) 7 6 

Nyen-hang-li (?), 45 E 5 

Pac.51 C3 

Pagoda Anchorage (Lo-hsing-t'a) 

m. 3 E4 

P'ang-chuang m. 3 E 2 

P'ang-hai m. 51 C 4 

Pao-tec D2 

Pao-an c, (Chih-li) D 1 

Pao-an h. (Shen-hsi) C 2 

Pao-ckHng F , D4 

Pao-ning F. 51 C3 

Pao ri-hoh-ehao (?) 10 Shan-hei 

Pao-shanh. 5 F3 

Pao-f eo (?) 10 . . .Shan-hei 

Pao-ting Fu C. 3, 7, 51 E 2 

Pa-Vang m A 4 

P^ei c E3 

Pei-hai (Pakhoi) (port), 27 C 5 

Peking (imperial Capital), 2, 3, 7, 

10, 18, 20, 32, 34, 37, 52 El 

Phyang thong (?). 45 E5 

Pih-k'eh-ts'i (?) 10 Shan-hsi 

Pi-k'oum.44 F2 

Pine. 61 C2 

PHng-le F D 5 

P'ing-liang F. 51 C 2 

Ping-lo (?) 10 Kan-PU 

P'ing-nan h. 27 E 4 

P'ing-tu c. 15 E 2 ! 

P'ing-yang h. 51 (Che-chiang) F 4 I 

P'ing-yang F. (Shan-hsi), 51 D 2 i 

P'ing yao h. 51 D 2 

Ping-yii (?) 37 Shan-tung 

P'o-kanm. 51 E4 

Po-lo h. 32 D5 

Port Arthur, 44 F2 

P'v^an T. {?)... C 4 

P^u-erh F B 5 

Sah-la-ts'i (?), 10 Shan-hsi 

Sang chia Chuang m. 51 C 3 

San-ehuih. 51 C2 j 

San yuan h. 24 C3 I 

Sio-ke(?), 8 E5 

So p'ing F. 51 D 1 

Shang-ch'ing m. 51 E4 

Shanghai h. (port), 2, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 

20, 23, 26, 27, 32, 46, 51, 53 F 3 

Shan hsi, 3, 10, 24, 26, 50, 51. 
Shan-tung, 3, 7, 15, 24, 33, 37, 51. 

Shan-yang (?) 28 E4 

Shao-chou F. 40 D 5 

Shao-hsingF. 1, 27, 51 F3 

Shao-wn F . 3 E4 

Sha-ri-ts'ing (?) 10 D 1 

ShcLsi (?) {port) D 3 

Shg-ch'l Tien m. 51 D 3 

She-hung, 31 3 

Shen c E2 

Shenq-CHING, 26, 35, 39, 44. 

Shen-hsi, 24, 26, 50, 51. 

ShihchHen F. C 4 



Shih-ch'uan h. 27 B 8 

Shih-nmi F. C 3 

Shun-ch'ing F. 51 C 3 

Shun-ni7ig F B 5 

Shun-te F. 51 D 2 

Ssu'Ch'eng F C 5 

SsiJ ch'uan, 1, 2, 18, 19, 27, 31, 32,34, 

51. 

Ssii-en F.. C5 

Ssti-mao T. {port) B 5 

Ssu-nan F C 4 

Su-chou F. (port) (Chiang-su), 5, 6, 

7, 13, 15 F3 

Su-chou F. (Kan-BU) A 2 

Sui-t€ c D 2 

Sui-ting F C 3 

Sung-chiaug F. 5 F 3 

Sung-p'an T. 51 B 3 

Sung-yang h. 47 E 4 

Swatau (port), 1, 30 E 5 

Ta-chien-lu T. 51 .B 3 

Taic F3 

T'ai-an F. 37 E 2 

T'ai-chou F. 27, 51 F 4 

T'ai-ho h. 51 E3 

T'ai-kang h. 51 E 3 

T'ai-kuh. 3 D2 

T'ai-p'ing F C 5 

T*ai-tB'ang c. 5 F 3 

T'ai-yiian Fu C. 24, 26 D 2 

Ta-ku m. 33 E 2 

Ta-ku Shan h. 44 F 2 

Ta-ku-t'ang m. 51 E 4 

Ta-liF. 51 B4 

Ta-mmg F. E 2 

Tan c C6 

Ta-ning h. 51 D 2 

Ta-ting F. C 4 

Ta-tung h. 10 E 3 

Ta-fung F. 51 Dl 

Te-an F. 40 D 3 

Te-ch*ing h. (Che-chiang), 5 F 3 

Te-ch'ing c. (Kuang-tung), 9 D 5 

T6ng-chouF. 7, 15 F2 

T'eng-yiieh T. 51 A 5 

Thong-thau-ha (?), 49 D5 

T'ien-cheng (?), 10 Shan-hsi 

Tientsin F. (port), 3, 10, 18, 20, 26, 

32,33, 34,37,51 E2 

T'o-t'o Ch'ftng (?) 10 D 1 

Tsao h E2 

Tsao'Chou F. E 2 

T8*ing-8hui-ho-tsi (?), 10 Shan-hsi 

Tsong-hang-kung (?), 45 D 5 

Tsong-shun (?), 4i5 E 5 

Tso-yun h. 51 D 2 

Tsun-hua c. 18 El 

Tsun-i F C 4 

T'ung c. 3 E 2 

Tung-ch'ang F E 2 

T'ung-chou F. 50, 51 D 3 

Tung-ch'uan F. 25, 51 B 4 

T 'ung hsin m. 51 F 2 



MAP INDEX 



i8i 



T''ung-jen F C 4 

Tung-kuau h. 49 D 5 

Tung tsun (?) 10 Kuang hsi 

Tung-un (?) 10 Kan-pu 

Tu-ehan c. 61 C 4 

Tu-yiln F C4 

Wan c. (Knang-ttmg) D 6 

Wan h. (Ssu-ch'uan), 51 C 3 

Wan-chi (?) 10 Kan-su 

Wei h. (Shantung), 7 E 2 

Wei c. (Ssu ch'uan) B 3 

Wei-hai-wei h F2 

Wei-hui F D 2 

Wei-ning c. B4 

Weiryilan T B 5 

Wen-chou F. 38, 51 F 4 

Wong-buang (?) 28 F 4 

Wu-ch'ang Fu C. 10, 12, 32, 40, 43.. D 3 

Wu ching-fu m. 30 E 5 

Wu-chou F. (port), 10, 15, 26, 40. . .D 5 

Wu-hu h. (port), 10, 18, 31, 51 E 3 

Wu-hsiieh m. 40 E 4 

Ya-chouF. 1 B3 

Taic C6 

Yang h. 51 C3 

Yang-chiang T. 7 D 5 

Yang-chou F. 15, 18, 51 E 3 

Yang-k'ou m. 51 E 4 

Ten-anF C2 

Tenrch-a T C2 



Yen-p'ing F. 27 E 4 

Yen-Bhan h. 32 E 2 

Yin-chia Wei m. 51 C 3 

Ying c. 51 D 2 

Ying-chou F. 51 E 3 

Yingk'ou, 35 F 1 

Ying-shan, 51 Ssu-ch'uan 

Tin-too c B2 

Yo-chou F D 4 

Yilc E2 

Tiian-chou F. (Chiang-hsi) . . . D 4 

Fiian-chou F. (Hu-nan) C 4 

Tiieh-sui T B 4 

Yiieh-yang h. 51 D 2 

Yii-lin c D5 

Yii-liu F C 2 

Yiin-ch'^ng m. 51 D 2 

Yung-ch'-ang F A 4 

Yung-ch'ing h. 37 E 2 

Yung-chou F D 4 

Yung-ch'un c. 30 E4 

Yung k'ang h. 51 F 4 

Yung-kung m. (?) 1 E 5 

Yung-ning c D2 

Yung-p'ing F. 33 E 2 

Yung-shun F D 4 

Yiin-ho h. 47 E 4 

YUN-NAN, 25, 51. 

Yiin-nan Fu C. 25, 51 B 4 

Yun-yang F D 3 

Yti-Bhanh. 51 E4 

Yu-yang c. (?) C 4 

Yii-wu m. 51 D 2 



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